


I Will Win

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Category: EXO (Band), SHINee, SISTAR
Genre: Alternate Universe - Laboratory, Brief appearances by the other SHINee members, F/M, Female Byun Baekhyun, Female Do Kyungsoo | D.O, Female Kim Jongdae | Chen, Female Kim Joonmyun | Suho, Female Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Female Oh Sehun, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 09:08:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13338015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: Kyungsoo walked down the hallway, heels clicking on the sterile hallway. It was alpha shift on a Monday morning, meaning her turn to look after the eleven subjects of Ward Epsilon. Her inbox had been empty in her office, so she looked forward to getting to spend time with her charges on a more personal level. She would never admit it out loud (more for safety than lack of desire), but she adored them as if they were her own family, even the obnoxious box of noise which was Baekhyun.(Cross-posted from AFF.)





	1. Researcher Do

**Author's Note:**

> Fem!Kyungsoo is a researcher in charge of Ward Epsilon in an underground base on the fringe of Seoul. Inside her ward are eleven subjects - five female and six male. The five female subjects are the control group - Sehun, Baekhyun, Junmyeon, Jongdae and Minseok. The six male subjects are the test group - Jongin, Yifan, Chanyeol, Zitao, Lu Han and Yixing. Over the years of their tenure here, Kyungsoo has grown quite close to her subjects. Alarmingly so. 
> 
> PROJECT: EXHUME
> 
> SUBJECT(S)
> 
> KAI - Kim Jongin
> 
> KRIS - Wu Yifan
> 
> PARK - Park Chanyeol
> 
> TAO - Huang Zitao
> 
> LAY - Zhang Yixing
> 
> LUHAN - Xiao Lu Han
> 
>  
> 
> SPARE SUBJECT(S)
> 
> SUHO - Kim Junmyeon
> 
> CHEN - Kim Jongdae
> 
> XIUMIN - Kim Minseok

Kyungsoo was the type of woman you pictured when paranoid nutters made home documentaries about places like this. A small, young and severe woman with her placid brown hair in a tight and perfect bun, minimal makeup, closed-toe three inch heels, nude nylons, a straight-cut grey dress and a white lab coat. She walked through the halls with a clipboard and a tablet against her chest and a vacant, but focused expression on her face. No one talked when they walked these halls and she was no exception, making the ten minute trip down from her office to the subject wards three floors below. Specifically, Ward Epsilon, whcih had been the place she'd been assigned when she came here nine years ago, flush with optimism about this opportunity to advance in her field and accomplish well-funded, long-term research. Needless to say, such optimism was quickly crushed under the burden of repetition and she felt less like a cog in a well oiled machine and more of nothing, really. Her only highlights were the twelve hours she spent in her ward with her charges. Being surrounded by eleven people worth talking to was a really nice change from the rest of her day. 

The elevator was a stark, unreflective chrome and the floor a boring steel panel. It didn't take long for her to reach her floor, the small LED panel on the side of the door lighting up with the title  _Ward Level 3_. She left the smooth contraption and walked down another stark white hallway, turned right and halted at a scanning machine accompanied by a blank-eyed secretary who didn't even look up from her computer to register her prescence. 

"RESEARCHER DO, KYUNGSOO. ACCESS GRANTED." 

The little green light above the door flashed and the reinforced glass slid to the side. She walked through the portal and into the research and containment section of Ward Level 3. Down a third corridor, turn left this time, another few metres and a second right brought her to a small unassuming door, opaque white with a small, useless, blurred window. She stopped just to the left of the door and let the scanner register her eye coding. 

"RESEARCHER DO, KYUNGSOO. ACCESS GRANTED."

This door's computer was quieter and the door slid open. She stopped at the reseacher's locker room and locked up her tablet, taking out one of her store of pencils and leaving. She walked down a little hallway. Several of her coworkers brushed past her, leaving beta shift and going to shower and sleep. A couple of other researchers filed in after her, going about looking all the subjects over, noting changes or similarities in the control and test groups, logically on either side of the hallway, separate from each other. She liked to let them go through first because while they were good at their jobs and thorough observers, once they were done their twenty-ish minutes here recording, they would go back through the locker room and through a secondary door that lead to a research lounge, where there were computers set up for them to work and couches for them to talk. Oftentimes, the researchers here would observe, socialize for an hour or so, then go back up to their offices to work and come back before the end of shift to observe once more and leave again. 

The other researchers unfailingly followed their programmed routine, walking past the stiff-faced Kyungsoo standing at the observation desk reading over the daily report from the beta shift manager on the tabletop tablet. As soon as the door to the locker room clicked shut, Kyungsoo looked up. The subjects, once curled on the far sides of their containments, were standing, almost pressed against the glass. 

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen." She greeted. 

Zitao, the one she could see best from this angle, smiled and waved. "Good morning, Soo."

"Come over and let me see my favourite captor!" Baekhyun yelled, no doubt miming hitting her fist off the glass in protest. Kyungsoo walked out from behind the table and hooked her heel into the little wheeley stool she'd stolen from one of the computers in the lounge and pushing it into the hallway proper between the confinement chambers. She plopped herself down on it because she knew she was in for a twelve hour shift and these eleven would  _not_  stop talking between now and then. "There she is! My favourite severe medical staff member!"

"Shut up, Baek." Luhan snarked, locked in his own cell.

"Children, children." Kyungsoo mediated. "We all know that Baekhyun can't be original every day. It's unfair of us to expect perfection from such a flawed being."

"I see what you're doing. Challenge accepted, wise girl." Baekhyun's eyes narrowed playfully and she stuck out her tongue. Across from her, Chanyeol rolled his eyes, though he was smiling. 

"Or just . . . do exactly as she wants. That's cool too." He teased. 

"It's not about that. I am a perfect human being and now I have to prove that."

"Okay, okay. I already think you're perfect." Chanyeol soothed.

"I hate to break up your fun, girls and boys, but you know the drill. How do your bodies feel?"

"I'm sleepy." Sehun complained immediately. She was infamous for it. "You guys never turn off the lights and it keeps me awake."

"You've been here for like, four years." Jongin sighed. "Get used to sleeping with the lights on."

"And I haven't yet so they better start shutting the lights off or I'll keep complaining."

"Sehun." Junmyeon said sternly. "Let Kyungsoo do her job, then pester her after."

"Okay, Eomma."

"Thank you, Jun." Kyungsoo smiled. 

"Anytime." The other woman nodded. 

"Okay, boys, bodies. Hit me."

"I'm feeling less sore and stiff. I can almost dance properly again." Jongin commented. "I still can't sleep on my back, though."

"My insomnia's gotten worse." Luhan said, voice dropping. "I'm only getting a couple of hours and I can only do it for three hours or less during beta shift. I'll try sleeping when you're here. I feel safer, so I might be able to sleep more."

She jotted that down because Luhan's sleeping patterns were only getting worse and that didn't bode well for his chances in experimentation. 

"My hands have been shaking." Zitao supplied. "When I try to exercise, it spreads up my arms and down itno my legs. I'm having difficulty writing and I feel dehydrated all the time."

"My twitching's slowing down, but my neck is still very sensitive." Yixing commented. "I feel the shock right down to my toes when someone other than I touch it."

"I see." Kyungsoo frowned. "That's a little strange. Nothing painful or bad?"

"Not so far." Yixing agreed. 

"Okay . . . " She looked down at her list. "Yifan, then."

"My hands hurt. Strange as it is, I think I'm growing again." His voice cracked a little bit in worry.

She looked up and gave him a smile. "I'll look into it, Yifan. Don't worry until I tell you that you need to."

He chuckled wearily and nodded, looking down. She scooted over and pressed her hand to the glass. His hand pressed back and she felt a thrill run through her at the massive size gap between their palms and fingers. 

"I'm doing okay so far." Chanyeol said. "My headaches have stopped. My hair's just red now."

"I think it looks good on you, but you won't believe me." Sehun griped. 

"And the bleeding in your ears?" Kyungsoo asked, staunchly ignoring Sehun's bratty, wordless complaint. "The vessel bursting in your eyes has gone away."

"Has it?" His hands migrated to his face unconsciously. " I can't see my face. No mirrors in here and all."

"Smartass." Kyungsoo retorted. "And yes, it's gone. Ladies? Any complaints?"

"I had blood taken." Jongdae said. "Theyd din't say for what, though."

"I ddi too." Junmyeon added. "I think a couple of hours after you."

"I woke up with a bandage on my arm, so they might have done the same to me." Minseok said, pressing her face to the glass and trying to see the other women.

"Just stiff from not being able to move too much." Baekhyun said. 

"I want the lights to turn off when I sleep." Sehun snarked again.

Kyungsoo nodded and stood. "Thank you for being so cooperative." She walked back over to the desk and the control tablet inside of it. tapping a few things, the hallway bordered by rooms became a circle, all the occupants able to see each other. The thick glass walls separating them all turned transparent. The occupants stepped back from the glass, turning around to sit or lay on their beds. 

"Dr. Do?"

Kyungsoo looked up from the console to a coworker. The subjects had gone silent, all staring at the man with eerie silence and a distinct air of hostility. "Yes, Dr. Lee?"

"What is the purpose of allowing them to see each other?"

"Socialization provides an insight into their mental wellbeing, which has a significant impact on their physical states and responsiveness to experimentation and augmentation. I also find that my results are boosted and my output is more solid when I aloow them human interaction."

Dr. Lee's eyes flickered up to the camera. "You had best be aware that you are always watched, Dr. Do."

"I will note your advice."

He turned away and left. 

They normally never came back to talk to her or the subjects unless they had left something behind or forgot to observe something completely. And they never, ever talked to her or the subjects. She'd gotten a bad rap for being an unapproachable and stoic personality and no one ever tried to talk to her. her heart was fluttering in her chest and there was a nervous coil low in her stomach that had her fighting back the urge to vomit. 

"Soo?" Sehun's voice was soft and concerned. While she was the brattiest of the patients, of their little group of twelve, she was the maknae and, past all her unflinching ice princess exterior, was still affectionate and caring. "Soo, come sit down."

Her heels still clicked with assured smugness, but there was a twist to her face that belied her unease. She sat back down on her stool and she pushed back into the front of Sehun's unit, feeling the other woman's heat through the tempered glass. 

"How about a song?" Yixing suggested. 

"Which one?" Jongdae was quick to jump on the distraction and Baekhyun, too. 

"What about that Spanish one Kyungsoo-noona taught us?" Jongin piped up. "What was it?  _Sabor A Mi_?"

"Yes!" Chanyeol broke into a grin and Kyungsoo felt better despite herself. Chanyeol was just that kind of person. "I think I remember the words Who started it last time?"

Kyungsoo cleared her throat, leaning back against the glass more fully and looking at all of her subjects. Their eyes were glued to her, curious. She had forgotten that she hadn't taught them this song by singing it to them and indeed had never sung in front of them at all. Oh well. Come what may, she supposed. 

" _Tanto tiempo disfrutamos de este amor~ | nuestras almas a acercaron tanto a asi | que yo guardo tu sabor | peru tu IIavas tambien | sabor a mi~_ "

"Oh! Yes, yes! I remember this!" Baekhyun piped up, clearing her throat. " _Si negaras mi presencia en tu vivir | bastaria can abrazarte y conversar | tanta vida yo te di | que por fuerza tienes ya | sabor a mi~_ "

"Oh! My turn now!" Chanyeol grinned like a madman. " _No pretendoser tu dueno | no soy nada yo no tengo vanidad~_ "

Junmyeon cleared her throat. " _De mi vidadoy lo bueno | soy tan pobre, que otra cosa puedo dar~_ "

Kyungsoo closed her eyes, long unused vocal practise resurfacing gladly in her throat. " _Pasaran masde mil anos, muchos mas | yo no se si tenga amor la eternidad_ "

Baekhyun purred to life again. " _Pero alla, tal como aqui | en la boca llevaras | sabor a mi~_ "

"I can imagine the guitar section that would come here." Chanyeol moaned, his fingers running over imaginary frets and strings. " _No pretendo ser tu dueno | no soy nada yo no tengo vanidad~_ "

Junmyeon hummed back into it. " _De mi vida doy lo bueno | soy tan pobre, que otra cosa puedo dar~_ "

Kyungsoo caught Sehun moving from the corner of her eye, mouthing along to the words. The girl wasn't much of a singer, but she really liked music and dance, enjoying hearing her cellmates beautiful voices. She was a little surrpised when the rest of the group rose up with her to sing out the final chorus bar. 

" _Pasaran mas de mil anos, muchos mas | yo no se si tengaamor la eternidad | pero alla, tal como aqui | en la boca lleveras | sabor a mi~_ "

They settled into silence for a moment before Chanyeol started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Zitao asked, eyebrows furrowing. 

"It was just so awesome that syncronize at the end." He wiped away tears. "I wish I had it recorded. Can we sing more? Oh, and Soo, you have to sing more! I didn't even know you could!"

"Yeah, you've been holding out on us." Yifan teased. 

"I got it." Sehun annouced. "We each get to tell a secret or a talent. Obviously, Soo-unnie's is her singing ability. We'll go oldest to youngest."

"You're just saying that so you get to go last!" Minseok complained. 

"Fine, youngest to oldest." Sehun sat back. "I had a really bad lisp. If I take this little piece of metal out of my teeth, it comes back just as bad."

"A lisp?" Jongin questioned, innocent eyes wide. 

"Yup." She smirked. "Your turn."

He ducked his head. "Before I was brought here, I was in training to become a ballet dancer."

"No shit. No wonder you're so good at dancing!" Sehun groaned. "Okay, Taozi!"

"I was a top-tier wushu martial artist back in China."

Jongdae ducked her head. "I was a ballad singer in training."

"I can sing, rap and play guitar, drums and piano."

"Talented." Baekhyun commented. "I was a tenor singer in musicals."

"I was a child actor and did contemporary and hiphop dancing." Yixing shyly admitted.

"I have the best abs?" Junmyeon murmured, avoiding their looks. "I'm addicted to situps."

"I speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and English." Yifan tossed in. "I'm also really good at sewing and designing clothes."

Luhan was looking at the ceiling. "I used to rap and sing on youtube before I was taken."

Minseok swallowed. "When I was little, my parents put me in a penguin suit and put my in a school play."

"I didn't know you all had so many talents." Kyungsoo said. "Why did I never think to ask that?"

"To be fair, we never thought of telling you." Junmyeon replied. "i certainly didn't."

"You know, Soo, you're the only one here that I like." Luhan said. "All of the other researchers are cold assholes. The scientists are just downright cruel. I know you don't have control over that and you just do what you have to to keep us in motion, but you are legitimately the only one that I like. You're like a friend."

"I have to agree." Yifan said. "I hate the rest of them."

Kyungsoo ducked her head, embarrassed at their affection for her. 

"Look! Look!" Sehun gushed. "The Squish has come forth!"

Kyungsoo was just happy that her week was beginning and experiment day Sunday was still a blissful six days of singing and laughing and talking away. Maybe she could even sneak Sehun an eye mask, because the girl just wasn't sleeping properly and it was starting to affect her mental capabilities, as well as her lisp control (which Kyungsoo had known about). She started making plans and care routines in her head for her charges, all so willing to do anything she asked of them simply because she took the time to get to know them. Heartwarming, really. Especially in a place like this, where Kyungsoo had been cold and vacant for too many years. 


	2. The Subjects

Kyungsoo sat in her room, considering the words of Researcher Lee. 

The walls around her where a matte cream, just beige enough to make it feel like she was trapped in a personless room rather than her own bedroom. She had no effects from her previous life, no pictures or songs or memories. She only kept her phone, disconnected from a provider, and its charger. On it, she had a small music library, a small picture library and a list of contacts - old contacts, now - that she had kept as a just-in-case. As the years passed her by, she slowly came to understand that even if she ever would have possessed the desire to leave this place, the place itself was designed to suck out enough humanity to keep her here forever. And, she was not ashamed to admit, it would have worked perfectly should she not have been assigned to Ward Epsilon. Indeed, it seemed that every other researcher had been reduced to a procedural science robot - no other researchers of scientists interacted with their subjects to any degree, as far as she knew. Only she had maintained herself somewhat. She wondered how long ago she would have stopped listening to music had she not caught Baekhyun and Jongdae harmonizing to the lyrics of  _Really I Didn't Know_. She didn't put it past herself to be a merciless droid - it was likely that very kind of ruthless mantality that got her a job here in the first place. So, no, she hadn't brought anything here. It was the same way she'd gotten it - completely beige and entirely lacklustre. 

But there had to be a reason Lee had approached her. Kyungsoo was the manager of the researchers of this project, so if he knew something she didn't, it was likely she was in a lot of trouble. That in itself wasn't hard to believe - places like this were the kind of places where getting killed wouldn't stretch someone's imagination - but what she didn't understand was  _what_  she did to bring this about. The only thing she could think of was her closeness to her subjects. But that didn't make sense, because they'd taken years to get to where they are now and her results were leaps and bounds ahead of her coworkers, bringing up side effects and issues that they would have never admitted otherwise and likely would have caused not only fatalities, but faulty results and above all, she knew that that was utterly unacceptable. 

She fell back onto her bed, uncharacteristicly unsettled. Researcher Lee had made a point of addressing her personally and she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being set up, that someting was innately wrong. 

Her door swished open. "Are you home, Kyungsoo?"

She sat up, back ramrod straight. "Taemin?"

The blonde man poked his head into the room, face lighting up in toothy smile. "Ah. I was hoping you would be awake. It's been a long time since we seen each other last. Rumours are starting around that we've broken up."

"Of course not." She spit out automatically. "We've said no such thing."

His smile fell some, but he hid whatever emotion passed through him away. "I just wanted to confirm."

She gave a forced smile and a false laugh. "Well, confirmed, then."

Taemin leaned against her door jam. "Why are you always so quick to want me gone when I come around, Kyungsoo?"

"I'm busy. As you know, the stages of the experiment are progressing and while you get the summarized report at the end of the week, there is a lot of informatio that needs to be observed and complled before you get it."

HIs smile vanished. "Is that so?"

"It is."

He sighed, anger lancing across his handsome features. "That's not all it is, is it? You've got someone else, don't you?"

She hadn't exactly expected him to jump to that conclusion, considering he had been her only friend when this thing had gotten started and her social circles hadn't gotten any bigger. "You know that's not true."

"Do I?" he locked eyes with her. "I'm fully aware of how much time you have and how much work you do witht he subjects. More than the rest of your shift combined. But out of all those hours you pour into this project, you can't take any time out to be with me?"

"I don't understand."

"Kyungsoo, the rest of your shift bags off after a couple of hours writing reports and theories. They go and talk, eat, drink and more often than not have sex with each other. You can't take a moment out of your day to come down and see me, maybe invite me back here, make me feel like you still love me?"

"You just said it. I am pretty mucht he sole reason you know any of the effects your experiments are having and what happens if I stop doing that?"

"I'm not asking you to stop  _entirely_ -"

"Not now you're not." She interrupted. "When we started this, you had no problem with doing things the way I wanted them to go, at a pace I needed them to be at. But then you got too impatient with me not wanting PDA, even in private. So I swallowed down my own desires and gave into you. After that, you didn't want to wait for me to  _want_  to have sex with you. You pushed and pushed and pushed. You got upset when I didn't want to meet any of your coworkers, got even worse when I told yoou I didn't know any of mine enough to introduce you to them. If I give into you here, you'll start to expect it from me and I'm sorry, but I'm not compromising my job. If you're that desperate for time with me, you can come here like you have now, visit me in my worktime with the subjects. You're the lead scientist ont he project, Taemin. It can't be that hard to make up an excuse to come down and see me if you want my company that badly."

" _I'm_  pushy? Kyungsoo, you don't want to do  _anything_. And you always wait for me to come to you. Can't you ever dos oemthing for me? Treat me like you care about me, even just a little."

"I do care about you. But I am here for a  _job_." She could see him start to vibrate. "And that had to and will always come first. I would expect no different form you."

Taemin rolled his eyes. "You're impossible.

"Maybe." She shrugged. "But yoou know that going in and you still accepted. That's your issue."

"Are you serious right now?" He snapped. 

She straightened her spine. "As serious as I always am."

He calmed down. "Look, I don't know what's gotten into you over this last couple of years, but I'm telling you now that it has to stop. You need to fix this. You're hurting us and you're hurting  _me._ " He turned to walk away.

"Imagine how I feel, knowing you only come here when you're horny and desperate." She lobbed back, face an immovable mask of apathy. "You never come for anything else. Don't forget that you're not in a place full of stupid people and air-headed girls. 

His face and countenace were tight and short. "I most certainly won't forget about this conversation."

"I hope you don't. I like you, Taemin, I really do. But this job is my life and you're only an addition. Maybe once the project is done there can be more of us, or an actual us, but I told you then and I'll tell you now: I don't have more for you than this."

"Right. Because I'm not worth the same amount of time and effort than those eleven test rats down on Level 3." He nodded stiffly. "It's good to know."

The door shut behind him and she fell onto her back again, letting herself sink into the bare mattress.

* * *

"You don't look like you've slept at all." Yifan commented as she dragged her stool over into the centre of the room. The glare she set on him made his jaw snap back together with an audible click. "Right. Sorry."

"Seriously though, what happened?" Junmyeon asked, leaning against the glass, her brows creased in worry. 

Kyungsoo just shook her head. "My boyfriend's an ass."

"You have a boyfriend?!" Baekhyun jumped in. "How come this is the first time I'm hearing of it?"

"Because it's none of your business." Minseok retorted. "She's allowed do what she wants without having to report it to you."

"Said who? We're all prisoners here, so that means she has to share any thing good that's happened to her, like human contact."

"You don't have to say anything." Yixing piped up. "Not all of us are so ravenous as to try snd live vicariously through you."

"I take offence, sir!"

"Come over here and take your vengeance. Look, I won't even move."

Baekhyun pouted. "Touche, good sir."

Jongin and Sehun rolled their eyes before they turned their gazes back on each other, communicating apparently through the raising of their eyebrows. 

"Are you sure you don't need to talk about it?" Chanyeol asked, his dorky face all wrong. He didn't look good with worry lines. 

"Even if I did, you guys aren't the kind of people I should tell. You've got more than your own fair share of problems and my own are dismally worthless comparatively." Kyungsoo replied. "Anyways, I need your symptoms now."

Junmyeon frowned as she watched Kyungsoo work. It felt so wrong to let Kyungsoo take care of them but not be able to return the favour.

* * *

When the room was set into it's circular shape, from left to right, they contained Sehun, Baekhyun, Jongdae, Junmyeon, Xiumin, Yifan, Luhan, Zitao, Chanyeol, Yixing then Jongin. That meant Yifan's cage was the end of the hallway when the room was rectangular. Kyungsoo was sitting with her back braced against Yifan's door, a medical textbook spread over her knees. 

It had been a long time since she'd actually read one and despite her high proficiency and incedible memory, there was nothing banked there that helped her make sense of what was happening wiwth her boys. It didn't make sense to her how Yifan kept managing to grow or why Chanyeol's hair pigment - and only his hair pigment - changed colour. Even if she could get that, she had no idea how to explain how his hair went such an unnatural  _red_. She imagined that the scientists would have a better idea of what did it than she could hope to find out in these books, but she was going to find out how it happened internally, even if she didn't know what mixture of narcotics and chemicals actually made the change. 

"You certainly do work a lot, don't you?" 

Kyungsoo looked up to one of the beta shift researchers. "Hello to you too."

She waved. "I just wanted to see the face of the woman who's research keeps outshining the rest of the team. If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were a robot."

"I have a very well-formed work ethic."

The woman flinched. "I want to know how little Do Kyungsoo actually managed to get all the results she has. After all, if nineteen other people haven't gotten them, you have to be fabricating at least some of it."

The subjects shifted restlessly around them. The woman walked deeper into the room, looking amongst the men and women in cages like she'd look at beetles and spiders preserved in glass. Nothing more than something to study. 

"Maybe your work suffers because you make too many incorrect assumptions."

The woman's flinch was more visible this time, but so was her anger. "Maybe there are some of us, statistically incorrect as they are, that are only here at the mercy of how well they suck the lead scientist's cock."

"Honey, there's only one person in this room who sucks cock for profit." Sehun snarked, leaning on her door with a bored expression on. Luhan and Baekhyun snickered non-too-subtly.

She looked to Kyungsoo like she expected the other woman to do something, but Kyungsoo only raised an eyebrow. "Don't have a comeback, Rebecca?"

Rebecca's back straightened. "Can't even keep control of your brood?" She walked to the control desk, searching for the tablet usually in the desk.

"Don't presume yourself to be so mighty as to get to decide on _my_  shift if my subjects will get disciplined." 

"Have you decided the whole Ward is under your control?"

"No. It was just too much work to get up to go to the tablet every time I wanted to do something."

"Too lazy? I wonder if that's the motto of your life."

Baekhyun cackled. "Okay there, Error 404. Her boss doesn't come in and havea to supervise her doing work to make sure that it gets done."

"Shut your fucking mouth, 5."

Baehyun rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, because you scare me sooo much." She punched the glass, startling the others in the room with the force of the hit. There was a dark gleam in her eyes. "Electrocute the shit out of me next shift. I  _dare_ you to. Fuck, it happens so much, I'm surprised I even still feel it. But Id on't suggest you open this door because you won't last a fucking second if there wasn't this fragile little sheet of glass between us."

"Give me the tablet, Kyungsoo."

Kyungsoo put it in her lab coat. "You're very funny, Rebecca."

"Give it to me, Kyungsoo, or I will tell Taemin about your practises here."

Kyungsoo closed her textbook and set it gently on the ground next to her chair. She stood, perfect and poised. Her face shifted and she stalked towards the other woman, backing her up into the desk  and caging her in with her arms and the terrifying  _slam_  of her hands onto the oak tabletop.

"You've got a lot of courage, presuming to come in here and bark orders at me." Kyungsoo purred in a voice dark and sinister enough to raise the hair on the back of everyone's neck. "I find it comical that you believe yourself to be such an authority as to come in and critize my work when you, yourself, have offered nothing to this team and have even less to offer as a researcher. You speak of going to Scientist Lee, as if the complaints of a mouse will matter to a lion. I am the lead alpha shift researcher and you can't claim to even be that of beta shift. Don't forget, either, that I am the lead of the entire research team for Ward Epsilon. I am your  _boss_ , your  _superior_ , and your  _administrator_  on this project. If your time is so free, maybe now would be a good time to learn how to  _speak within your pay grade_." She turned away and walked back to her wheelie stool and sat back down, piking up the book and opening it once more. "But if you feel that my performance is sub-standard, I encourage you to go to Scientist Lee and petition to take my place and recieve his critique on your capability to do my job."

Rebecca was quick to leave. 

"I didn't know you could be that scary." Jongin commented quietly.

Kyungsoo was back to normal when she looked up from the text once more, giving him a soft smile. "Only when the times call for it."

"That was pretty frightening." Yifan agreed from behind her, a gummy smile breaking out on his face. "I'm happy you're with us."

"Of course. Like I said, you guys are  _my_  care. No second-rate know-nothing is going to take that from me and neither will Taemin."


	3. The Authority

"Why do you have to be like that with Rebecca?"

Kyungsoo looked up from her dinner at Taemin, who had come and sat down across from her with his own food. "Because it is not her place."

"You can't be such a hardass."

"Perhaps they don't understand what it means for me to be a hardass." She replied evenly.

"Soo, please. I can't have you making an enemy of the research staff."

"I don't plan on making enemies. That doesn't help me any, especially on beta shift. I need them to be competent enough to care for them during the hours I'm not there to make sure it happens and I can't have someone like Rebecca punishing them - without acknowledging it in report, I add - because she whimsically feels like it. It's not good for the subjects and is therefore detrimental to the research and  _your_  job."

"Kyungsoo-"

"Taemin." She countered, just as hard, meeting his gaze. "You're the director of this project. It's up to you, ultimately, what happens and who gets away with what. If I don't take care of this within the parameters of your liking, you can appoint someone else the Research Lead. I won't take offence and will accept it quietly and professionally. But-" She took his hand. "-I will not have them treated unnecessarily poorly. It sucks enough already being a subject."

Taemin sighed. "Fine. But I'll hold you to that. I can't have you going sideways on me in this, Kyungsoo."

"I won't." She went back to eating.

"Can I ask you about something else?"

"Sure.'

"Where do we stand?"

"What do you mean?"

"We need to decide whether this paper-thin facade of a relationship is worth propping up or if we're going to go our separate ways."

She stopped eating again and met his stare head-on. "You're my only friend in this facility, the only person I would ever think of confiding in or being this honest with. If that kind of connection is best suited to a friendship, then so be it. If you would like to remain in a romantic relationship with me, then we stay together. I don't really mind either way."

"If you don't mind, then I think we're best as friends."

"I guess we are."

"For the record, Soo, despite being an asshole, I still really like you. You're so lovely."

"I like you too, Taemin. You mean a lot to me."

He ducked his head and stood. "Well, good luck wrangling your staff. I leave it in your capable hands."

"Good luck, Taemin. I'll see you soon, likely." She offered him a closed-lipped smile and he did the same in kind, turning and walking away.

* * *

Kyungsoo's shift had ended two hours ago and she knew that most of the researchers would be off doing their own jobs right about now. However, that said, this was the time when she would catch the possible crooked people in beta shift being crooked. After all, she had ordered all eleven of her charges to strip down to the skin and spin, makign sure that she could see every possible intersection of their skin so she knew exactly what kind of condition they were in before anyone else got to them. 

Rebecca was the only one in the room and the cells were in their circular position. She was standing in the middle of it holding the tablet. 

"Who the hell do you think you are? Do you that just because that bitch is fucking Taemin and protects you during the day that she'll be your fucking saviour? You're rats, the lot of you. You're nothing more than reactive flesh. There are dogs worth more than all of you combined."

A weak, but pained gasp that sounded like Baekhyun echoed out from the silence. A sharper moan came from Sehun and just for effect, a sharp cry from Chanyeol.

"You think you can embarrass me without consequence? You think you have the rights to say  _anything_? You're worthless. I'm sure if we weren't all so afraid of getting some terrible disease from you, you'd all be rape toys to be enjoyed to the fullest in this hell-hole."

"For someone else with a vagina, I'm surprised you'd even say something like that to them." That sounded like Luhan. "After all, if they'd be easy rape material, then you must be  _real_  easy even by willing standards."

"And pretty boys like you? I know a couple of brutes down in engineering who would  _love_  to break in that tight little ass of yours."

"So I take it you didn't like what Scientist Lee had to say."

Rebecca spun around to find Kyungsoo, in all black and flat-footed running shoes, standing in the doorway.

"Researcher Do!" She cancelled the power to the punishment installations. Kyungsoo made an acknowledging noise and stepped behind the desk, clicking on the intercom. 

"All researchers of Ward Epsilon's beta shift, report back to holding chambers immediately." Kyungsoo called out. She walked back around the desk and blocked Rebecca's exit. Within minutes, the rest of the on-duty staff sheepishly returned to the containment chamber, looking between Kyungsoo and Rebecca curiously. Once assembled, Kyungsoo walked forwards, guiding Rebecca into the middle of the room. 

"What's this all about?" The beta shift manager asked. Amber was a decent woman and Kyungsoo didn't like to put her in this position, but this was more a warning to the staff she didn't directly control.

"It seems I've been too lax in asserting my authority on this shift." Kyungsoo said, voice deep and timbre intimidating. "Most of you know who I am, but as little more than a name. A fault in my leadership perhaps, but I do not intend to let it continue." She turned back to Rebecca, who's eyes were wide. "Care to repeat your lovely soliloquy? I'm sure your coworkers would love to hear your performance."

"I-I wasn't doing anything."

Kyungsoo clicked her tongue. "Amber, would you mind going to the main console and replaying the audio-video of the last, say, five minutes?"

Amber did as she was told without a word, hand coming up to cover her mouth as the audio of Rebecca's threats to Baekhyun, Sehun and Luhan played over the loudspeakers. 

"As I said, perhaps I wasn't clear enough on who's in charge." Kyungsoo took the tablet from Rebecca's hands, stepping out of the chamber and entering a code command. The entire hallway lit up in an electrified field, freezing Rebecca in excruciating pain for twenty seconds before shutting off. She dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Kyungsoo tossed the tablet to Amber, who nearly dropped it. "You are here for a  _job_. If you cannot perform that job in a timely, professional manner, then you will be disciplined and dismissed. The subjects are subjects, but they do not belong to you and are not toys for you to batter. If I catch wind of their treatment being poor, I will personally see to your punishment. Ward Epsilon is  _my_  domain and these are  _my_  subjects. Treat them with respect and the proper care or I will make you regret it."

Like schoolchildren, the nine researchers in front of her nodded rapidly in understanding. 

"That said, I hold no one but Rebecca responsible for the events of tonight." Kyungsoo's voice was back to normal and she was back to being the very short lead researcher. "That would be unjust and unfair. You are free to continue in your activities and finish your work." 

The researchers filed out, two brvae souls getting a stretcher and removing Rebecca to the infirmary, but Amber stood frozen behind the desk, like she knew she wanted to talk to her.

"I'm so sorry, Kyungsoo." Amber said immediately once the room was empty (well, free of  _researchers_ ). 

"I accept your apology, but now you must do better. I want them monitored until they prove to be no threat to the subjects."

"Count on it. I promise."

"Good. I suggest you go and brief your team, calm their fears. The last thing I want to do is lay an unjust punishment."

"I understand. You'll have my report in full tomorrow and I'll leave notes on the briefing."

"Thank you. I appreciate it. Go join them."

Amber left the room in a hurry and Kyungsoo walked back into the middle of the circular room, meeting the wide-eyed gazes of her charges.

"Wow." Yifan breathed and it broke the tension. Baekhyun and Sehun, even from the floor and in pain, cheered.

"God, I hated that woman." Baekhyun wheezed, slumping to the floor once more.

"What did you even do to her?" Luhan asked, pressed right against the glass.

Kyungsoo's lips quirked. "There's a command code given to each lead of a department. What it does is electrifies exist and passageways for a twenty second interval with a high-voltage field. She won't be able to move for the next week, she'll be so sore. The shock is relatively harmless, but is very good for rending the targets immobile, which is why we use it. It's a precaution for escapees."

"Neat." Jongdae piped up. "So, will she be working the beta shift anymore?"

"Absolutely not. She'll be lucky to be made a secretary and not stuck down in engineering, cleaning pipes."

Zitao's smirk was sharp and smug as he looked down at the she-witch unconscius on the floor. "Good riddance. I hated her more than I can tell you."

Kyungsoo nodded, placing the tablet down on the stool of hers which no one seemed to have moved. She went back behind the desk and returned with jars and wrappings. "Down to the skivvies. I need to see who's been injured."

"All of us?" Jongin asked, shyly. 

"Yes. You might try to hide something from me and after all of this trouble, I'll not have you nurse your own wounds."

All told, Sehun, Baekhyun, Luhan, Chanyeol and Junmyeon (presumably because she stood up for her cellmates) were the ones that took damage. 

"So what's the protocol for this? You pass the jars through a littl ehole or something?" Baekhyun asked.

"No. Place your hands on the two indicators on the back wall." Kyungsoo replied. Baekhyun did as she was told and some sort of field activated. trapping them there.

"Woah! What's this?" Baekhyun squealed when she felt slender warmth on her back and suddenly, Kyungsoo's face popping up right in front of her. "Hey, wait-!"

"There's no way to have a robot do it and the facility doesn't trust any subejcts to self-medicate, even for something comparatively tame, like this. That means the next best option is restraint. Now, because you all have your limbs and no mutations, we can use a simple trap field to restrain your hands and once restrained, we can enter and apply medical care." Kyungsoo's face disappeared and Baekhyun felt a warm glob of something hit her skin. "This is aloe vera extract with a mixed in skin cell stimulant. What that means, is a topical burn like this will be cooled by the aloe vera and swelling with dissipate. The stimulant will kick-start and increase skin cell production, meaning your skin will heal faster."

"Holy hell." Baekhyun murmured, almost arching into the gentle, soothing strokes of Kyungsoo's hand. "How long will you have to do this?"

""I'll do it now and when I return for alpha shift, I'll do it again. From there, I will do it at the beginning of my shift until such time as it is unnecessary."

"Your clinical explanations are unbelievably sexy." Baekhyun moaned. 

Kyungsoo smirked. "Only because I'm the first person to touch your skin in six years doesn't mean you find me sexy."

"Oh hell yes it does."

"Baekhyun is bisexual." Chanyeol noted. "Good to know."

Jongdae snorted. "Who were you planning on having a threesome with?"

"H-Hey! I didn't say that!"

"You didn't have to." Minseok deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at him. "You're not getting me."

"I wasn't thinking of you."

"Who were you thinking of?"

"Who's to say?" Chanyeol retreated back into his cell. Zitao laughed at him.

"Smooth, man. Smooth." 

"Shut up, fetus!"

Kyungsoo finished with Baekhyun, the trap field releasing when the glass door sealed once more. She did Sehun next, amongst all the lewd comments and Sehun's moans of pleasure-pain when Kyungsoo would pass over a knot in her shoulders or back or thighs. Perhaps Sehun had more problems sleeping than she had given her credit for. 

She did Luhan third and on his fourth pass at her, she slapped his ass hard enough to leave a mark. The pain coupled with the very public embarrassment was enough to shut him up. Chanyeol was very gracious about her application of the salve. He only flinched when she pressed something too tender or on something too hard. She did Junmyeon last because she knew the woman was the selfless sort and it wouldn't sit well with her to be treated before the others. No one made comments about Junmyeon. She really hadn't been lying about having the best abs.

Kyungsoo went and replaced the salve and bandages in the storage area. It had taken her about two hours to go through them all and she was feeling the effects of missing her schedule more than ever now. "Okay guys. That's all for tonight. Please try and get some sleep before I come back for alpha, though you're more than welcome to sleep through almost all of that as well."

Sehun pressed her hand gently to the glass as Kyungsoo was leaving. "Thank you, unnie."

Kyungsoo actually smiled and winked at her. "Don't mention it, maknae. Get some rest." She put the tablet back in place, cutting the lights down to 45%. "See you tomorrow."


	4. Beta Amber

Taemin sat acros from her at the desk in his room, watching her form where she was perched on his sofa. "So Rebecca's in the infirmary now?"

"Presumably. I didn't actually follow the researchers that took her away."

He sat back at his desk, running his hands through his hair. "I assume you want her reassigned?'

"Please."

"Where?"

"Anywhere thaat's not Ward Epsilon."

"I don't necessarily have power that far."

"Then make her a secretary or something. She can't go back into that room."

"Do you not think she learned a lesson from that?"

"I'm not so concerned about her knowning what she did wrong, more that I need it a message to my other researchers that I can and will dismiss them."

"Right." He leaned back in his chair, watching her. "You care a lot about them, don't you?"

"To an extent." She hesitated. She had never really been able to lie to Taemin. "Someone can't spend weeks, day in and out, with the same people and not care about them."'

"The others don't."

"The others aren't with them the full shift like I am."

He sighed, looking off to the side. "Do you ever consider not throwing yourself so fully at them? Taking some time for yourself every once in a while?"

" . . . Not really." She eyed him. "Should I?"

"I think it would be beneficial."

Her eyes narrowed. "Where is this coming from, Taemin?"

"The Directors are worried about you getting close to the subjects and forming attachments." He spoke plinly, which she appreicated. It was so tiresome to try and understand what someone was dancing around. "If your results weren't so good, they would have taken you off the project a couple of years ago."

She nodded slowly. "So, you're advising me to create a visible distance between myself and the subjects?"

"Exactly."

"What exactly is the goal of Project Exhume?"

"I can't tell you that."

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, Soo."

"So, the Directors are worried that I'll do something to protect them because I care about them and the Project is self-evidently volatile."

Taemin didn't say anything.

"I see." She stood. "Well, I have quite a bit to consider. Thank you for your time, Taemin."

"Don't get mad at me, Soo."

"I'm not mad at anyone. I wasnt kidding about having to consider this very thoroughly. It is important that I make the right moves from here on, isn't it?" She raised an eyebrow. "It's likely that you weren't even supposed to tell me they consider me a threat to the project. I appreicate your honesty and I'll try my best to assist you without raising tensions any more."

He choked out a laugh. "Why are you always so cooperative?"

"Should I not be?"

He shook his head, a smile sneaking onto his lips. "Do what you've got to do, Kyungsoo."

* * *

Kyungsoo had barely slept when she arrived, crisp and on time, for the alpha shift. Amber was still there, waiting on her as the other researchers filed through.

"I know we're not . . . close, or anything, but I'd like to talk to you a little bit?"

Kyungsoo blinked. "Sure. That's what I'm here for."

Breath rushed out of the younger researcher and she rolled her shoulders, preparing herself. "Okay, so I want to start staying through the night with the subjects, like you do.I was just . . . I don't know how to do that."

"Waht do you mean?"

"Like, I do all kinds of reports and research compilations for the scientist teams since my shift's supposed to be more of a dead one, right? I don't know how I'm supposed to balance the two."

Kyungsoo poked the tablet and the room shifted shape to a circle once more. "If you're doing it on a laptop or tablet, then it's easy to just bring it down here with you on shift. Sit here at the control desk, if you'd like. Otherwise, you can log in at the desktop computer and work from there."

"I'd also- I mean-" She sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I want to work with them like you do, but I don't know how to."

"Do you have two hours to spare to stay on this shift with me?"

Amber blinked. "Huh?"

"You can shadow me for a little while and leave when you're ready to go eat and sleep."

Amber broke out into a smile. "Sure. That would be great."

"Come, then. Grab the skin regen gel and the bandages."

She listened obediently. "Why, though?"

"Rebecca hurt five of the subjects when she was playing with the punishment apparatus."

"Oh." Amber's eyes grew wide. "OH!"

"Yeah. So we have to clean them up some."

"Right, right." She shook her head. "Sorry. It's been a long night."

"I don't doubt that." Kyungsoo walked them into the central room and the subejcts pressed themselves to the glass, all smiles to see Kyungsoo again.

"My saviour!" Baekhyun cooed. "So lovely to see you so fresh-faced this very morning."

"I will smack your burns if you make fun of me for not sleeping again." Kyungsoo threatened and Baekhyun laughed.

"I don't doubt it."

"First things first - ladies and gentlemen, this is Amber Liu. She's the manager of beta shift. She's going to be staying with you during the evenings and Iw ould like you to give her a chance." She eyed all of them, making sure they recieved her message. "She reports diretcly to me and she's good at her job. Play nice with her."

"Okay, unnie." Sehun spoke up. 

Jongin nodded too. "Whatever you need, noona."

"Wow." Amber walked up to their cages. "You guys really respect her, don't you?"

"She takes care of us." Zitao replied. "She's really good to us. It's only natural that we're as good as we can be for her too."

"That's really sweet." Amber cooed.

"What brought this on?" Luhan barked from down the room. "You never had any interest in us before this and now all of a sudden you have a change of heart?"

Amber walked over to his cage, meeting his gaze steadily. "It's not an excuse, but it's the truth; it's really easy to treat someone you're told to study as if they're an animal. When we were trained, you were always 'the subjects' or 'the experiment'. It gets really easy to dissociate the fact that you are  _people_  and not just the means to meet a goal."

" _That's_  your explanation?" Luhan nearly snarled. 

Amber shrugged. "I'm not making excuses. We were trained to examine you from a cold, clinical perspective and that's what we did. That's what I did - followed my training and the rules and did as I was told. Should I have? No. I mean, they hired us all because we have the ability to think critically, but I never thought to think critically on how I was doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I wouldn't ever blame you for being uncooperative, but I'm also not too prideful to avoid fault. Kyungsoo's way is the best way and you  _are people_  It took me too long and a fried staff member to realize that, but hey - better late than never." Amber offered a smile. "After all, it might be nice to actually get to talk to someone while I'm up all these stupid hours."

Over Amber's shoulder, Kyungsoo was giving him  _the look_ , so he sighed and gave in, backing away from the glass and going to sit on his cot. Kyungsoo's expression was back to neutral when Amber turned back to her. 

"It's a good start." Kyungsoo said.

Amber nodded, smiling sheepishly. "Well, let's get started, shall we?"


	5. A Moment

"Researcher Do?"

She down from the green light above the scanner that told her she could go through. The secretary sitting at the desk was a darker skinned young woman. Kyungsoo didn't remember her name - likely had never spoken to her before - and nodded her way. The woman flushed, but mustered her courage.

"Are you okay?"

Kyungsoo blinked. "Of course. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. You just look really . . . put out? Kinda like you think something bad's about to happen?"

"What's your name?"

"Kim Hyojung. It's usually just . . . Hyolyn, though."

Kyungsoo nodded and stepped into her little office space. "Nice to meet you, then, Hyolyn. Did you just start working here?"

"Yeah. I was transferred here with three of my friends." She smiled and it was wide, cute and endearing in an almost Chanyeol fashion. "All four of us start today."

Kyungsoo leant against her desk, her small frame almost sitting on the edge. "And who are they?"

"Well, Yoon Bora, Kim Dasom and Kang Jihyun, though we call her Soyou."

Kyungsoo blinked. "Do you nickname everyone?"

Hyolyn flushed again, her dark skin and black hair not enough to hide it. "We were brought here as secretaries and office workers. To liven it up, we read some of the unrestricted patient files and found that some of them have codenames. Their projects have little nicknames too, so we made it kind of like a little game."

"I don't fully understand what you mean."

"Well, for example, we used to work for Human Engineering. There were a couple of projects going on, but one of the main ones was Project: Rovix. We found out by reading some of the unrestricted reports that the scientists and researchers working on it commonly called them 'VIXX'. The oldest one in there was a woman named Cha Hakyeon, but they just called her 'N' in the files."

"Do you notice things like that happening in this department?"

"I'm going to be honest, I haven't even been here a full shift yet, though . . . " She pulled away and shuffled backward some. "Dasom! Come up here for a minute."

A pale, thin woman with shoulder-length straight hair walked around the corner. "What's up, Hyolyn?"

"You've been reading through this project, right? What's the shorthand?"

"I'm assuming this is for Project: Exhume?"

"Yeah."

"I find the project is often codenamed 'EXO'. Not all the subejcts have nicknames, but almost all of them do. So far, the only ones I found that haven't are Baekhyun and Chanyeol."

That was news. Kyungsoo knew each subject had an unofficial 'name' so that the sheer amount of clinical numbering in a facility like this wouldn't get too confusing, but she didn't know it had extended so far. "What do they call Oh Sehun?"

Dasom met her gaze and seemed to weigh in her head whether Kyungsoo was safe to tell. Since she was inside the barrier, Dasom seemed to come to the conclusion that she was okay. "Oh Sehun? I think she's number eleven and that's . . . Shixiun. I don't know yet why half the names are in Mandarin when she's self-evidently Korean, but hey. I'm just a secretary."

Hyolyn rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Dasom."

The other woman saluted and disappeared back behind the wall.

"She's our file rat." Hyolyn explained. "She spends most of her time back in the actual cabinets and everything sorting and working through any and all paper files we get."

"I was wondering why such a small department would need four secretaries."

Hyolyn shrugged. "Well, secretary isn't the best term for us. I mean, I just do check-ins and look pretty, but Dasom is our paper diver, Bora is a server genuis and Soyou handles electronic sorting and email procedure."

"Busy women."

"Sometimes." Hyolyn shrugged. "We're good when its busy, whcih is when it counts, right? Anyway, I've wasted a lot of your time already and you have a shift to get to, right?"

"Indeed I do." Kyungsoo straightened herself out.

"Hey." Hyolyn winked at her, smile infectious. "Don't be a stranger."

Kyungsoo actually  _giggled_. "I'll give it a shot."

* * *

Amber was gone when she entered and the other researchers had dispersed. In Amber's report, she left a little note that Rebecca had been replaced with a woman named Song Qian.

 _For simplicity's sake, I'm calling her Victoria from now on because that's how she introduced herself._  Amber wrote.  _I only found out her name because of her employee file anyway. I'll just add the alias in later to make it easier on the search engine._

Kyungsoo nodded at the tablet and clicked the room into a circle once more. 

"How was your first night alone with Amber?" She asked them, sitting down with her clipboard. She was staring pointedly at Luhan.

"Okay, so she's not  _terrible._ " Luhan muttered. 

"I like her." Sehun commented. She ran a hand through her short black hair, kept trimmed by the scientists, presumably, when they took her in for physicals. "She's kinda boyish, but in a good way."

"She's sweet." Yifan commented, seated against the glass. His head would be on her thigh if it didn't separate them. "She reminds me of sporty girls I went to school with in Canada."

"Did you try to stay up the night with her?"

"About four hours." Minseok replied. "Then our regular sleep time rolled in and we just kept to the routine."

"I slept a little more. Five hours this time." Luhan admitted. "It felt better to have someone trustworthy around."

"Jongin reminded him that you said to play nice with Amber and then he calmed down." Zitao explained. "He didn't do it on his own."

Kyungsoo nodded. "That's fair. I don't expect you to trust her implicitly or immediately just because I said to."

"You're worth listening to." Junmyeon said. "If you say something or someone is worth it, then they are. Nothing more to it."

"Well, I'm glad you trust me this much."

* * *

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. She had a couple of dinners with the secretary girls, who had taken to calling themselves Sistar, and got to know them better. Dasom warmed up to her relatively quickly, both of them taking to the straightforward talk between them. Hyolyn and Bora turned out to be two of the funniest people she'd ever been around and Soyou was very quiet and level-headed, but not afraid to smile or laugh along with her group.

"I don't understand how you don't have more friends." Dasom insisted at their table in the cafeteria. Kyungsoo hadn't even known these girls had a place specific to them before this.

"I never made time for anyone else. I take my work with the project very seriously and I've come to realize that maybe it was a bit too seriously. It's a hard habit to break, though, since I've been doing this for so long."

"How long have you been down here?" Soyou asked. 

"Maybe ten years? I've been on Project: Exhume for seven at the very least. There was a year-long planning and prep stage before we actually got the subjects in for ourselves."

"No shit, really?" Bora interjected, almost spitting out her drink in surprise. Hyolyn raised a disgusted eyebrow, but otherwise said nothing about it. 

"Yeah. I did some other preliminary work for other projects before too, when there wasn't enough staff everywhere."

"What kind of work?" Dasom's shrewd gaze was steady on her, but Kyungsoo didn't feel trapped. Dasom was a sharp woman and she was extremely blunt, but she wasn't the secretive or destructive type. Knowledge for knowledge's sake, more often than not.

"Basics. Lab schematics, machinery requirements and elementary systems needed for the data processing."

"Holy shit. How much did you major in?" Hyolyn asked. 

"Biomedical engineering and biochemical engineering were my joint majors and I took extra summer courses in computer sciences and systems administration."

"You people are all nuts." Hyolyn laughed. "I took a summer course in secretarial skills, took the first job that got a response and found myself here four years ago." 

"Funny how all this works, isn't it?" Soyou wondered. "All of us with different backgrounds and everything and yet, all of us wind up piled here together today. Think there might be a reason?"

"I don't know." Bora countered, lookign thoughtfully up to the ceiling. "What does our D.O. have to say?"

"D.O.?" Kyungsoo looked amongst them. "Should I ask?"

Hyolyn grinned. "You're one of us now, honey. You get a nickname too, though I would think you're more part of EXO than Sistar, though we don't mind to borrow you every now and again."

"Okay, D.O. not knowing how fun works aside, what do you think of Soyou's idea?" Bora insisted. 

She looked amongst all the women, innocent and happy. "I think we'll only know whether it was on purpose or not with hindsight."

"And that's that." Dasom declared. "Now, we have to let Kyungsoo sleep and the four of us have work to do. Let's get going."


	6. A Ploy

Kyungsoo had known the Sistar girls just shy of a week, but they had become very close. They were friendly women who were always looking for someone else as sassy and intelligent as they were to keep up with the conversation. Plus, they hung off every word when she told them about the subjects. 

"They don't have pictures." Dasom epxlained. "They're classified a level higher than I have access to."

All told, it was a pretty natural relationship development. Even Amber had become closer to her, less afraid to ask questions and despite Kyungsoo's now-volatile reputation, the new woman, Victoria, had spent her training shift with Kyungsoo instead of Amber, not beating around the bush and asking intelligent and sharp questions not only to Kyungsoo herself, but the subjects as well. Kyungsoo's social circle was expanding well and properly in such a way that no one really noticed the change.

Except Taemin.

* * *

"So what's the game, Soo?'

She just closed the door behind her, starling for a moment before turning to look at him. "Game?"

"Yes, the game. For ten years, I'm the only person you've wasted time talking to outside the professional setting and now all of a sudden you have _six_  new buddies?"

Kyungsoo looked around the room and she dropped her voice. "You know exactly why, Taemin."

"I'm afraid you'll have to enlighten me, Soo, because this is all really new and confusing."

"The Director wanted me notto be as close to the subjects as I am. Well, I can't withdraw from them without making them suspicious and possible compromising my results. That said, my new relationships should provide the Director with a suitable distraction. It also gives me a reasonable excuse - I don't spend all my time with the subjects and have formed well-meaning relationships with other staff."

His eyebrows shot up incredulously. "You made friends to cover your tracks and get the Director off my back? That's the only reason?"

She looked away. "That's the reason i made friends, but I  _do_  like the people I'm not friends with. I will remain companionable to them long after this issue is resolved and I can work unhindered again."

Taemin sat forward and took her hand. "Kyungsoo, I want to move you to another facility."

She recoiled, but he didn't let her hand go. "What? Why? Amber isn't as good as I am and I'm finally making progress getting past their ailments."

"I'm offering you an out, Soo, for your sake and mine. It'll be in the Caribbean, studying marine biology and marine mammal biology comparable to human subjects. I'll even send the other women you like so much with you."

"I'm not leaving my work."

"Kyungsoo, I'm offering you an out." Taemin squeezed her hand, almost painfully. "I am  _begging_  you to take this right now. Leave tomorrow, on your day off, and there won't be anything you'll ever want or need for again. Just,  _please_ , take the out and leave here."

She froze up in his grip and he could see the information cycling around in her head. Suddenly, she ripped her hand out of his grip and stood. There was something like fire and anger in her eyes, a lingering thread of protectiveness in her stance. "I'm not leaving my work."

"It's  _my_  work, Soo. You've got no ties to it - you  _shouldn't_."

She a stiff professionalism fell into place to hide her emotions. "This is as much my experiment as it is yours and I am just as invested in . . . the results as you are, I assure you." She opened the door and vanished past it. 

Taemin ran his hands through his hair. "Fuck, Kyungsoo, why can't you just listen to me? I'm trying to save your life here."

* * *

Kyungsoo didn't sleep that night. She paced her room on her day off, completely ignoring the pages and messages from the Sistar women and Amber and Victoria. She locked the door from the inside and didn't respond to the knocks or calls from her friends. Her pass wouldn't let her into Ward Epsilon on Sundays.

She didn't sleep.

* * *

Monday morning, as prompt and punctual as always, she didn't even apologize to Hyolyn, who tried to get her to talk. 

"Careful, Kyungsoo." Was all she got out before Kyungsoo was gone. Dasom, Bora and Soyou watched her go, equally worried expressions on their faces. 

She didn't stop to check the reports or change the room shape, just rushing in and looking into the cells. 

Sehun was the first to notice her, jumping up and pressing herself against the glass. "Unnie, they did something to them. They were screaming all day long and since they dragged them back here last night, they haven't moved."

She rushed back to open the cells, Jongin's first, but her passcode got denied, no matter how many times she entered it. She ran back to the glass, moving around it to try and get a better look at his face, trying to understand what happened to them. 

Jongin was laying on his side, completely impassive. His face was slack and his body was limp. His hair had turned from a light brown to a parched blonde, laying over his cheek. Beside him, Chanyeol was propped up against his bed, clearly tossed in without caer for his person. The red of his hair was more vibrant than normal, almost glowing, and he had blood dried around his mouth and some still dripping from his ears. Zitao's skin had faded from its wonderful bronze to a sickly pale and he had thick bags under his eyes. Yixing was on his bed, but only haphazardly. He was bleeding out his one nostril and a small cut on his arm dripped liquid consistently. Luhan's bags from his insomnia were  _gone_ , but he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks. Yifan, at the end of the row, had split skin around his joints and knuckles, which were larger now than their already abnormal size. His hair, too, had gone a ruddy dirty blonde, hanging limply around his face.

She covered her mouth in horror, stepping back.

"Did you think there would be more time, Researcher Do?"

She spun around, wide eyes taking in an older man in a proper black suit. Standing behind him was Taemin and several other officers of the Experiment Board. They all stared at her impassively expect for Taemin, who had his head down and eyes averted. 

"What did you do to them?" Even Kyungsoo was surprised by the vehemence of her voice, the  _I dare you_  hidden in the scathing notes of her question.

His brows furrowed and he was very clearly unimpressed with her. "You would do well to remember who you're talking to,  _girl_."

Kyungsoo snarled. "I don't give a fuck that you're Kim Youngmin, you tell me what happened to these men right  _fucking_  now."

Taemin stepped in between them. "Kyungsoo, calm down-"

"Then you tell me." She snapped. "It's my job to know."

"Not anymore." Youngmin replied, making a small motion and several armed men rushed into the room, assault rifles raised on her.

"No, don't!" Junmyeon shouted. Minseok started hitting the glass. Baekhyun's soft weeping got stronger and Sehun started yelling profanities as fast and as violently as she could. Kyungsoo risked a glance over at Jongdae to find the woman deathly still on her cot, as if she had been flash-frozen in her sleep. She met Taemin's eyes, which were pleading. 

"What have you done?" She whispered. 

"I told you to take the out." He whimpered back. "You should have."

She shook her head and straightened her posture, staring at Youngmin with a darkness that should have dragged him to Hell early. "Don't waste my time, then. If you're going to shoot me, shoot me."

"I've no problemw ith that." The older man sneered, turning away. "She's all yours when the door closes."

"I'm so sorry, Soo." Taemin whispered. 

"Fuck off, Taemin." She hissed back, cold glare turned on him, making his scurry out of the room quickly after his master. The door sealed itself shut and the noise of the outside vanished, leaving her with four panting women in cages and seven unconscious people she needed to protect.

"Fucking shoot me then!" She challenged. "The door's closed, what are you waiting for?"

Minseok screamed, punching the glass hard enough to tear open her skin as the squad opened fire and that was the shattering of glass was the last thing Kyungsoo heard before shock took over and she passed out. 


	7. Rogue Experiments

Kyungsoo woke up to a thick ringing in her head and red warning lights flashing above. The floor underneath her was very uncomfortable, not to mention the pool of her own blood was now cold. There was shattered glass everywhere, including her hair and clothes and she could feel some of it stuck in her legs and arms. 

"I said  _no_!"

The voice was wet with anguish, fear and  _violence_ , but it was clearly Baekhyun. To Kyungsoo's surprise, it was Chanyeol who hit the wall, hand on his face. He let go and looked off past Kyungsoo's line of sight. He was silent and eerily impassive, just watching her before he slowly sat down. His hands came to rest on his lap and he sat perfectly straight and still. The crunch of rubber over glass brought Baekhyun into Kyungsoo's line of sight. 

"Thank God, you're awake." The other woman breathed, petting down Kyungsoo's hair. Her gaze flickered to Chanyeol, like she didn't expect him to stay still, but he only continued to regard her and observe her movements. 

"Why are his eyes glowing amber?" Kyungsoo wheezed out. 

"I don't know." Baekhyun said. "They're all like that. Each of their eyes changed."

"Tell me. The colours."

"Well, Chanyeol's are yellow-amber, Luhan's are a baby pink, Lay's are highlighter green, Tao's are purple, Kris' are blue and Kai's are a grey-white."

"Wait, where did you hear about their code names?"

"The files. After they broke open the cells and broke down the doors, we found your room and went through the files. Chanyeol's the only one who still responds to his name properly." Baekhyun gave him a stern look. "But that's besides the point right now. We've been trying to get to you for hours and I can freely admit I don't know shit about medical science, but there is a fuck ton of blood and I'm pretty sure that we have to stop it for you to live. I don't know what I'm looking at, so you'll have to help me."

"Okay." Kyungsoo tried to sit up, but her body was stiff, cold and unresponsive. She'd lost more blood than she'd realized. "Okay. I need you to take off my clothing where there's blood and use the cloth that isn't soiled to wipe as much blood away as you can."

Baekhyun produced a knife from somewhere and cut open Kyungsoo's jacket and shirt. She then pulled her shirt over her head. Chanyeol flinched and growled, but Baekhyun was on her feet, arms raised in a defensive position. 

"I swear, you come after me one more time-! I'm a black belt in hapkido and you know it, Chanyeol, so stay the fuck away from me. Junmyeon and Sehun might be willing to lay down for you, but I sure as hell won't."

Chanyeol sat back down, reverting to his statue form. Baekhyun dropped back to her knees, working at getting rid of the mess.

"What do you mean, 'lay down for you'?"

Baekhyun's eyes flickered up to meet hers and there was a humourless smile there. "Once they got finished killing everybody, they wanted shots at us."

"Speak clearly, Baekhyun."

The pretense of conversation fell away and Baekhyun looked back to where Kyungsoo was riddled with bulletholes. "They tried to rape us. Kai and Tao succeeded and now Sehun and Junmyeon just let them whenever they feel like staking a claim, I guess."

"What happened to the rest of you?"

"They put Jongdae in a medically induced coma and Lay's just wrapped himself around her, sleeping there presumably until she wakes up. Minseok beat the shit out of Luhan when he tried to get . . . friendly with her and he obeys her every command now like a puppy. Kris has been stalking out anything that smells medicinal and clean and piling it at your little stool."

"And you?"

Baekhyun looked very uncomfortable. "I didn't know what Chanyeol was doing, initially, so I let him. It was brutal, so the next time he came back, I kicked his ass. I'm not stronger than him, though, like Minseok is over Luhan. I could only fend him off. He caught up with me just now, since I'm the only one who's been trying to get back here to treat you."

"if Minseok's free and okay, where's she?"

"Right now? Either rifiling through files or keeping Kris at bay. Sehun escaped for long enough to get over here with you once, managed to hook up an O blood bag before Kris almost attacked her and Kai took her away."

God, what a mess. She had a lot of work cut out for her. 

"Looks like you were shot six times." Baekhyun said. "One in your shoulder, one in your collarbone (which is broken, by the way), two in your upper thighs, and three in the midsection. What now?"

"Stick your little finger inside each hole and see if you can feel a bullet."

"What?! Are you serious?"

"Yes. If there's a bullet casing still in there, I could get an infection. If there's bullets, that makes this more complicated."

"Okay. Ew. Okay - here goes."

To her credit, Baekhyun didn't squirm of make noises - not so much as a gag - as she thoroughly felt each of the holes. She may be a big mouth and never shut up, but she was very good at follwing instructions.

"Okay, there doesn't seem to be anything there. and I didn't feel any metal at all."

"That's a good sign. Go to Yifan's-"

"Kris."

"- _Kris'_  supply of medical equipment and see if you can find anything that is liquid or foam labelled  _antiseptic_."

Baekhyun moved out of Kyungsoo's vision, some shuffling noise likely meaning she was going through the supplies, before she returned. 

"He's surprisingly organized, for a man who stuck his arm through three people's chests."

"Id on't see what that has to do with organizational skill."

Baekhyun gawked at her for a moment before she broke out laughing, loud enough in the dim, quiet space to make Chanyeol flinch. "You're amazing, Soo. Genuinely amazing."

"I try."

"So, what do I do with the antiseptic? It's a foam spray, by the looks of it."

"Spray it into and around the wounds." She looked over at Chanyeol, who's eyes were glued to Baekhyun's careful and nimble hands. "Chanyeol?"

His gaze snapped to hers, but he said nothing. 

"I need you to come and hold me down. Help Baekhyun by keeping me still."

Obediently, Chanyeol stood and came over to them, laying his large hands down on both her thighs, but far away from the aggravated wounds. Baekhyun, body stiff, ignored him completely and did as Kyungsoo asked, keeping a firm hand down on her when she started to writhe under the painful onslaught of the antiseptic.

"Fuck, I hate this stuff." Kyungsoo panted. 

"Then whyd id you tell me to use it?"

"Because it works." She screwed up her eyes, trying her hardest to keep from crying out. Suddenly, there was a gentle hand brushing over her brows, another in her hair.

"Shit." Baekhyun wheezed. "Hey Kris. When-When did you get here, buddy?"

With the burning easing away, Kyungsoo managed to open her eyes. Looming above her was Yifan. Just as Baekhyun had said, they were a vivid blue that glowed unnaturally, like someone put an LED behind a gemstone. His face was completely void, but his hands - one alone now large enouogh to encompass her entire face close-fingered - bespoke a caring concern for her pain.

"It's okay. This has to happen for me to get better, Yifan." Kyungsoo explained. He didn't respond at all. "Okay, Kris?"

The giant man nodded, leaning down to tap his nose against hers. He sat back on his heels, still combing through Kyungsoo's tangled hair, but made no move to interrupt Baekhyun or Chanyeol. Nervously, the female subject finished the task. 

"What now, Soo?"

 "It doesn't feel like any of the bullets went through. Kris, are you strong enough to carry me?"

He nodded. 

"Good. Pick me up - be mindful of my wounds - and follow Baekhyun, okay? Chanyeol, you can come, but you stay behind Kris."

He nodded too. 

"Where am I going, Soo?"

"Don't worry. I'll lead you. There's a cafeteria not far from here where I used to have dinner. They'll have butter knives and a gas stovetop."

"That's what you want to use to cauterize your wounds?"

"A Bunsen burner would get hotter, but the flame is very small and may damage the metal. There are also no tools they would use to seal a wound like this more adequate than a butter knife."

"If you say so, you're the doctor here."

* * *

Kyungsoo quickly discovered that the facility had been evacuated and sealed. The files and paperwork and secrets had been abandoned here and so had they - left to rot hundreds of storeys from the surface. 

"Are you okay, unnie?"

The yells from her cauterization had brought the rest of her scattered group to the kitchen and there were now all huddled together in her bedroom - save Lay and Jongdae, who couldn't be moved. 

"The bullet holes feel like really brittle paper that's itchy and sensitive." She paused, reflective. "All things considered, I'm doing pretty well, actually."

Minseok barked out a laugh from the other side of the room, Luhan diligently sitting at her feet and looking up at her, not moving. Junmyeon, who was trying her best to be gentle as she applied the aloe vera skin regen gel and fresh bandages, snorted like a single mom working two jobs in a Guess store - feeling patheticially underequipped to be here and finding no humour in the situation. Tao was sitting with the supplies, handing them to Junmyeon as she asked for them without a sound. Sehun had a firm grasp on her left hand, resting on Kai's knees with his arms around her waist. 

"It's pretty likely you should have passed out, so yes, you are doing pretty good." Minseok chirped, flashing a gummy smile. Kyungsoo offered a dry one back, which made the other woman laugh a little. 

Kyungsoo was quite confortable here, actually. She had self-medicated well and not over-thought her situation. She didn't hurt any more than she thought she would and she was very good at staying still, so she was okay. The others had foudn the food and were more than willing to help her, like children when their teacher falls down on the playground. All the while, it gave her the chance to observe the men trailing her female companions. She got to understand their ticks and patterns, what would trigger them and what they would allow, what signals they looked for in their partner to register distress. She was high-functioning right now and doing physically adequate, as prepared as she could have ever been for this situation.

Kyungsoo was not prepared for Kris.

She had obviously passed out during the cauterization, the pain stimulus and her blood and sugar levels too low to deal. She had woken up in Kris' arms, bound in them and restricted tightly but comfortably. When she requested to be put down, he had complied. But after meeting with and being cared for by the women, he had pulled her head onto his lap, gingerky petting her hair and rumbling softly in a pathetic mimicry of speech. It was very disconcerting and it was giving her concentration trouble. It was Kris and Kris alone that she didn't understand.

"Have the boys been sexually aggressive again since the first day?" Kyungsoo asked abruptly. Baekhyun froze out of the corner of her vision. 

Minseok snorted. "Tame as a puppy. Look, he even likes pets. Isn't that right, Luhan?" 

The man in question nuzzled into her palm as she extended it to him, a smile lighting up his features. 

Junmyeon coloured. "Um . . . He's been . . . wanting?"

"Explain."

Long chestnut locks fell in front of her face to hide the red creeping from her cheeks to her neck, but Junmyeon forced herself to continue. "He, uh- He gets grabby when he wants to- to- Yeah. But he isn't rough with me like he was the first time. Actually, he calmed right down when I started to cry the first time."

"Thank you, Jun. Next." There was a stretch of silence, but if she looked left or right, she was met only with the lengthy, folded expanse of Kris' legs. "You are all going to talk to me eventualy, so I suggest you do it before I'm fully mobile again."

"Kai didn't force me." Sehun blurted out. "Well, he came onto me really hard and he kissed and touched me a lot without asking, but when I pushed him away, he let me go."

"He did?!" Baekhyun shrieked. Kyungsoo felt the maknae's hand flinch at the volume. Chanyeol whined softly from his corner - for Baekhyun or for his hearing, Kyungsoo didn't know. 

Sehun's grip tightened. "Yeah. I mean, he kept pestering me for it, but he didn't, didn't  _rape_  me or anything. Just pushy, kinda. And when Kris came in - when I was helping Soo - he pulled me away to protect me. Kris was going to kill me for sticking the needle in her arm."

"Why didn't you tell me?! You just let me assume-" Baekhyun stopped herself there, breathing deeply to calm herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get upset. I thought he and Tao had- Nevermind. It's none of my business."

"And you, Baekhyun?" Minseok prompted softly. "What did Chanyeol do to you?"

"He bit me and rubbed himself off on me." Baekhyun said, voice dry and blank. Kyungsoo really wished she could move - Baekhyun was a pain in the ass, but she needed a hug.

"Baekhyunnie . . . "

Junmyeon (who was the only one she could see) snapped around, eyes wide.

"What?" Kyungsoo whispered. "What's happening?"

"That was Chanyeol. He spoke."

Kyungsoo frowned. "Have they not been speaking?"

"Absolutely not. Tao has only growled and purred at me."

"Baekhyunnie . . . " Chanyeol tried again.

"Kris, lift me a little bit." Kyungsoo was actually surprised when Kris listened, pulling her up enough to see over his legs. 

Chanyeol had approached her slowly, cautiously, like he was afraid to upset her again. He stood there now with his arms awkwardly swinging open. Baekhyun was in their circle, but he didn't close them in on her. She swayed back and forth, indecisive, for a long moment before throwing herself into his embrace. 

"God fucking dammit, Channie, you piece of shit." She broke, starting to sob into his shirt. Chanyeol took her in his arms and pulled her back onto his lap and into his corner. 

"You can put me back, Kris." Kyungsoo said softly. Junmyeon, without a word, went back to wrapping the wounds. 


	8. An Understanding

Life support and water recycling still worked. Small miracles, Kyungsoo guessed. As days passed into weeks into months, Kyungsoo was very grateful. She was also very busy.

"This place is a labyrinth of information." Kyungsoo had said to Minseok, who had questioned her sanity. "If you look and read, somewhere, the answer is written down."

Well, Kyungsoo had been reading for four months so far and she hadn't found the answer yet. But she also had extra eyes now and her workload had been cut down to only a sixth of infinity. 

"Do you even know what we're looking for?" Jongdae, freshly awoken and getting sleepily pawed at by Lay, who wanted to continue to hybernate, asked. 

"Not exactly. But it's here."

"All I know is the needle is gold and you can find it in this haystack." Baekhyun summarized, rolling her eyes.

Kyungsoo paused. "That's actually very apt. So get looking and let me know if you get pricked."

"Does it count if I'm looking at one?" Baekhyun snarked back. 

"No."Junmyeon replied flatly, not even looking up from her stack of documents. 

Minseok giggled from another corner, neck-deep behind a wall of paper.

* * *

Kyungsoo had come back to consciousness after her cauterization four days after the initial attack. Jongdae woke up three more after that. 

She was groggy, thirsty, feeling ill and just generally achy. They had all expected the same of Lay, who hadn't moved since appointing himself her sleepy sentinel, but he hopped up without a problem and helped her move about the facility proper, even feeding her after being shown the kitchen. Under Lay's care, she made a remarkably fast recovery and was up with them in another two days, sifting papers with Lay as her human filing cabinet.

Minseok had watched, seething with jealousy. "Why couldn't I have gotten Lay? Luhan's not good for more than a paperweight, and even then, he wiggles and rips the pages."

"He's a statue compared to Tao." Junmyeon bemoaned. "He  _never_  stops moving. He barely even sleeps without kicking me."

Baekhyun pushed Chanyeol away from her belly, where he was trying to blow raspberries. "You seem to like them just fine to me. I totally saw you macking on Tao, don't even lie, Junnie."

Junmyeon shut up and disappeared behind a filing cabinet.

"I dunno." Sehun sat back and assessed Kai for a long moment. He stared back, eyes wide and innocent. She patted him on the head before going back to her work. "This model seems fine to me."

"You're just saying that because Kai's always been stupidly hot." Baekhyun whined. 

"Shut. Up." Sehun retorted, making a face. "You're always been attracted to Chanyeol's stupid ears. I heard you two sweet talking."

"We shared a childhood! Of course we're going to talk about good memories!"

"About how you got jealous at prom that he didn't dance with you? I dun think so, sweetheart."

"You're a fetus, what the hell would you even know about something like this?"

"Plenty. Please see Figure A." Sehun made a gesture to Kai, who cocked his head at her, confused and bewildered by the woman he'd laid claim to.

"You just fuck his brains out. There's nothing more than that."

"Have you seen their eyebrow conversations?" Jongdae cut in. "I really think Sehun and Jongin already had a connection and since he became Kai, it's just even more evident. He shadows her perfectly, it's kinda weird."

"Well,  _I'll_  tell you what  _I've_ seen . . . "

Kyungsoo and Kris sat at the very back of the room. Kris was massive compared to her and he seemed to insist she use him as a throne, because he always pulled her onto his lap when they were in this room. She had papers in her hands (the electronic backup had failed), but she was watching the others. 

Four months. It had taken her four months of agonizing over the slang and poor quality of Taemin's handwriting to finally figure out what had happened to them, but even then, only vaguely. There had been six parasites of the same species, but of varying potency or strength. In order for the male subjects to survive its insertion, they had hyped them up on chemicals, pheromones and drugs during the four year preliminary period. Each of them had a different cocktail, specific to the parasite the were assigned. The day of the parasite insertion, they were given a virus of some description that even Taemin seemed unsure of and left to writhe through it. According to the observation notes, they 'looked like I'd poured molten steel into their veins instead of a tiny needle with almost nothing in it'. That was the screaming Sehun had told her about before the shooting. Taemin was incredibly unsure of what to expect from this; they were looking to creature some kind of super solider (monster?) for . . . something. No one seemed to have any idea what was actually going on.

However, being as incredibly good at her job as she was, Kyungsoo had managed to piece together much more of the puzzle with that very small basis in the notes. 

The virus was given to them in order to give their body resilence against the parasite, in an attempt to have the host gain control of the thing. Jongdae, unconscious as she was, had been lined up to be the 'control' subject, to see what would happen to her if just straightly given the parasite. Junmyeon and Minseok had been scheduled for the day after, wherein they would be given the virus and then the parasite to see if they fared better or worse. Sehun and Baekhyun were to be kept as 'ultimate control', there to set a standard against their male counterparts to see what exactly the changes were. Each male had been given a parasite of differing 'dominance' and the codename they'd been given, for the sake of simplicity, was also the name of their corresponding parasite. 

Yifan was given Tier 1: KRIS; Jongin, Tier 2: KAI;Chanyeol, Tier 3: PARK; Yixing, Tier 4: LAY; Zitao, Tier 5: TAO; Luhan, Tier 6: LU. Jongdae had been lined up for Tier 1: CHEN. Minseok had been assigned Tier 1: XIUMIN and Junmyeon had her vial set aside too, Tier 2: SUHO. Kyungsoo found it quite gross, actually. The infection and the transfer had been successful in the males. Thusly, the males responded only to their programed names in the beginning weeks. 

The parasite itself was a small thing, no larger than a drop of water at full maturity, that lived on the electrical impulses that pass through the spinal column. As far as parasites go, it was one of the kinder ones - it lived with a method of cohabitation. Since it was directly connected to the host's central nervous system and it's primary function was to control its host's actions, it built up a relationship with the host. In exchange for permanent partial control over their body, the parasite would protect people and animals cherished by the host as a manner of placation. It was an interesting survival mechanism and were she in any different position, she would love to study it. 

Kyungsoo had observed that the first weeks (one and a half to three, depending on the tier of the parasite) were a wrestling match over cognitive control. Hosts became almost feral, only seeking to establish themselves in an environment and ward off potential threats. However, they also had a sense for other hosts and the tier level of the parasites inside them, falling into somewhat of a power-ranking hierarchy. Kris sat atop that empire, Luhan being the weakest of the lot. While that meant in physical terms that Kris had better reflexes, a more perfect violence and instinct, he also lacked basic humanity for a long time. Luhan, while not as sensibly able, had been the first to speak proper sentences (garbled as they were between Korean and Chinese) and the first to exhibit boredom, impatience and discomfort from stillness and discomfort period. 

By the two month mark, they were all exhibiting humanity and ethical compasses. Kyungsoo had been afraid that the parasite might inflict sociopathia. Another two weeks after that and the personalities of the hosts began to return in noticable and forceful ways. It seemed that the parasite had thusly established dominance over the physical domain (conquering and submitting the virus) and in its weakened state of glory, the host broke part of themselves out of their internal confinement. Chanyeol, despite his tier, was the first to do this. He had self-evidently attached himself to Baekhyun, the neighbour's daughter who was a year older than him. They had grown up side by side and were even captured together (Chanyeol taken under the duress of a bullet in Baekhyun's brain if he didn't cooperate) and Kyungsoo theorized that his deep and longstanding connection to her (as well as an apparent long-nursed crush-turned-distant-love) was the reason he 'came to' so early on. Otherwise, as expected, Luhan was the first to reemerge and Kris the last. 

Even then, though, once they  _did_  come back, it wasn't  _all of them_. There were key aspects of them that were missing or not quite right. Luhan's sarcasm had gotten stronger, but it still felt like more of a vocal reflex in his speech than something intentionally biting or satirical. Perhaps the one most like himself was Lay, who was so Yixing around Jongdae that one could be mistaken for thinking the change never occurred. He was bubbly and giggly and talkative, his dimples on almost constant display. It also became clear that the higher the tier, the less of the person that returned. Kris and Kai remained largely closed off and straight-faced. How they expressed themelves, Kyungsoo had found, was through sex. 

Sehun and Kai had sex constantly. They were almost always touching (mostly platonically, but Kai was very sneaky like that and Sehun's poker face was very strong) and very often idly hugged or kissed or held each other. One of their most favourite things to do was dance, usually as provocitavely as they could to see who would crack first. The win/loss record was split. 

Kyungsoo's injuries took much longer than anticipated to heal - the blood loss being a large factor as well as the lack of her regular nutritional suppliments. Even after the inside of her wounds healed and the broken bones had set the best they would, her skin was still sensitive and fragile, tearing on her more than once. Kris seemed to be hyperaware of this and hadn't once made a move on her. She didn't know how much longer that would last, considering she was alomst entirely back to normal now and could stretch without being conscious of how she was moving. 

With all that in mind, she had to just keep reading, sorting through more and more information. There was nothing else to do.


	9. Unlocked Door

Kyungsoo knew she would find the answer if she looked long enough. There was nothing quite like a bunch of busy scientists to keep records - both unwilling to let any information be forgotten and scared that they would forget it if not written down. It was a really lucky find, too. Food was running low (though the guys didn't tend to eat often, when they did, it was ferocious and ravenous) and the life support, while not failing, was not designed to run so long without a break. She had had to rewire it a couple of times just to make sure it kept on. 

Not anymore. 

* * *

Taemin jerked up when his door was smashed open. "Bloody Hell, Minho!"

"I don't even care that you're offended." He snapped, grabbing him roughly by the arm. "The seal on the Seoul Module has been breached."

Taemin was on his feet immediately. "What do you mean?"

"Taemin, the goddamn door to the facility is  _open_." Minho ground out. "Whatever the hell you were trying to contain in there is  _out_."

"That can't be possible. We  _killed_  them. It's been months!"

"Don't play stupid with me. Key specifically told you to purge the building, but you wouldn't. You were in too much of a rush, trying to cover up your mistakes." He threw open the door to the monitoring room, startling Key and Onew. "Fix this, Taemin. Even if the Director and Board forgive you, whoever was in there most certainly  _will not_."

"You don't understand, I  _watched_  them shoot Kyungsoo down. I know the subjects are strong, but there's no way any of them are smart enough to figure out the door. They're just  _not_. It's part of the reason they were chosen."

"Aside from appeasing petty vendettas." Minho rolled his eyes, furious. "I don't care what you seen. You might have filled her with enough holes to string her into a marionette, but someone you  _didn't_  shoot knew enough to keep her alive."

"I need-"

"I'm not helping you again." Minho cut in bitterly. "You screwed around this whole time. You are the architect of your own disaster. If you had of listened to me and kept to yourself instead of chasing Researcher Do and done your job  _like you were supposed to_ , this wouldn't have happened. I saved your ass more than enough for my own karma. I'm not doing anything else for you."

"Minho, please-"

"If you start to beg, I will never speak to you again." His voice and gaze were firm - there was no negotiation to be had. "I saved you over and over again, but you wouldn't change. It had to be done  _your_  way. I'm not going to help you now that your poor decisions have led you here, but I'm also not interested in finding out what your precious little psychopath considers correct moral retiribution."

"Kyungsoo's not a psychopath."

"Oh really? Her tests say otherwise. She's actually certifiably sociopathic and is on the very edge of psychosis-induced homicide. A  _ruthless clearance of populace_ , if you will."

"She's not like that."

"Maybe she wasn't, but now that you've locked her in a cage for nearly six months, leaving her to die? That would tip a normal person over the edge, let alone someone already inspecting the cliff."

Key and Onew, completely silent, looked at Taemin.

"This is my access card and my passwords. Sort this out yourself. I'm going on an extended leave of absence, effective immediately." Minho dropped the tags on the desk, an air of doom and finality about the motion. "The rest of the Monitor and Containment team is welcome to come with me."

Key and Onew stood, their tags on the table. "We'll tell Jonghyun."

Minho nodded, sparing Taemin one last glance. "Good luck, though I think you'll need more than that."

"I need your help, Minho."

"I suggest you be quick to learn how to do without."

The door slammed shut and Taemin was left alone in the sickly glow of the monitors, the cracked open vault door of the Seoul Module taunting him with the barest glimpse of the concrete stairs leading down.

* * *

Amber jolted, her phone going off for the first time in years. In the Seoul Module, she'd been too far down to receive reception and she hadn't been allowed outside contact anyway. Now she was again, on standby with the rest of her research team in the actual city of Seoul. She scrambled to get it, stumbling over a few days' worth of notes she hadn't reported on yet. 

**Unknown Number**

_Amber, we're still alive._

She stared at the message for a long moment before rubbing her eyes. 

_Oh yeah? Cool._

Her phone vibrated again seconds later. 

_Amber, Taemin wasn't successful. Project Exhume and I are still very much alive._

_Kyungsoo?!??_

_I'll find you in Seoul Park._

* * *

It was night by the time that Amber managed to make it to Seoul Park, anywhere remotely inside the massive forest. There was an eerie silence that kept her nerves on high alert. No birds, no deer, no sound of water. She just kept walking, trying her best to look like she was comfortable. The last thing she wanted to do was be found dead when she should have been attending to her regular sleep schedule. 

Two small, blue lights caught her attention and, curious, she shifted towards them. 

 _Like a moth to a bug zapper._  She would have laughed, too, had the lights not  _blinked_.

"Amber."

She almost screamed, but a small, strong hand capped over her mouth and she was spun around to the haggard face of Do Kyungsoo. She could have fainted. 

"How the hell did you get out of there alive? We were told the experiments escaped."

"They did. Because Taemin shot me."

"I  _knew_  it." Amber hissed. "I knew Taemin was full of shit."

"Very much so."

"But, Soo, why let me know you're alive?"

"Because I need you to get me information. Inside information. I need to know if Minho, Key, Onew and Jonghyun have quit on Taemin yet."

"Who?"

"The SHINee research monitoring and recovery team."

"Oh. I don't know if I can help with that."

"Are Hyolyn, Bora, Soyou and Dasom still the secretaries for your team?"

"They're still following us, if that's what you mean. We're all kind of sitting around doing nothing right now. What do you even want to know about him?"

Kyungsoo shook her head. "I don't want them talking around, trying to fish out information. What would be the best way to contact Hyolyn, do you think?"

"I could send her to this park tomorrow night?"

"I would appreciate your assistance."

Amber's hands fluttered at her side for a moment before she gave up and threw her arms around the elder researcher. "I'm so happy you're alive."

"I can't begin to think of a reason why that would appeal to you."

Her voice cracked as she laughed. "Despite all your scary shit, Soo, you're one of the most amazing people I've ever met. I don't know a lot, but I know they locked down the facility and you were still inside, supposed to be dead. That you're here, alive, and likely planning something insane is just . . . amazing. I'll do whatever you need me to do."

"Get me Hyolyn." She pulled away, large eyes dark, half-lidded. "Keep your phone on you and away from where others will see it. Watch me work and keep your head low."


	10. The Match

They really were gone. All of SHINee had up and left him. 

Taemin had to consciously swallow and fight the urge to let his breathing get out of hand. He didn't understand the code that Minho used. Each member of the team was there for a reason, but now they were all gone and Taemin couldn't wrap his head around how to work the systems. He needed help, desperate help. If the Board and the Director found out that his own team had abandoned him and he'd let them leave  _alive_ , he would be the next one to face the noose. Only his own subordinates, sworn to secrecy, could save him now and if he remembered his conversations with Kyungsoo well enough, he just might have a saving grace.

* * *

Bora sat at the desk, reading the code as if came up. Coordinates for the old facility and a line which read an error warning. There was a breach there somewhere - the main door, probably, by the severity of the messaging and just the sheer number of times it was repeating. 

"Look, boss, I don't know what you think hanging around here is going to accomplish." Hyolyn sighed. 

"I need to make sure you do your assignment." Taemin countered. 

"You want us to do this job, then let us do it. Hovering will make Bora and Soyou freeze up. Not to mention how  _fine_  you were with us handling sensitive data in the facility. Just let us do what we have to do. This is a whole new system, remember. We have to learn it first and you hovering will not help."

Taemin sucked in a breath. "I'll be back after dinner to check up on you."

"I think that's a wise idea."

Taemin spared them one last look before he left the room, gently closing the door behind him. The four women hovering around the control panel remained still for a minute, listening to the silence, their own breaths and the beating of their hearts. 

"Think he's gone?" Dasom asked, eyes shifting rapidly over the screen. 

"Yeah." Hyolyn nodded, her heels producing startling clicks as she strode over to another bank of consoles. "Get to work, ladies."

Immediately, Bora's fingers were flying across the keyboard, the clacks of the keys nearly furious in their speed. Soyou, at the far end of the room, was doing her best to keep up with the reports coming in from the Seoul Module's emergency systems.

"It looks like there was a lot of internal damage." She reported, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she continued to scan the decrypted messages. "Broken doors, hotwired life support, torn open walls and violence in the deeper levels."

"Are we out of our depth here?" Hyolyn asked, bringing up visuals from the backup cameras still operating inside the facility. 

"I . . . . don't know." Soyou's eyebrows furrowed, concerned. "It reports that alongside EXO, VIXX was also dangerously unhinged and possibly escaped. Their cell doors were not locked in the evac, but the wing they were inside of was doubly enforced to compensate for their abilities."

Hyolyn pursed her lips. "Dasom, you can check up on VIXX. I need you to focus on EXO for me, Soyou."

"Right." Dasom swallowed and sat down beside her elder, opening up another screen and starting to trace VIXX's movement and whereabouts, trying to find any trace of them in sub-section nine.

"Okay." Soyou squinted harder at the screen, the lump of nerves in her throat tamped down by instruction and guidance. "So, the original containment room was in pieces before the lockdown was even completed. All of the subjects broke free from their cells before the order was even given. Backup data suggests that their experiment phase had been completed and it was supposed to move onto consequence observation for the next two years, should the subjects last so long. I don't have any audio/visual feed, so I'm not sure what exactly happened. I imagine it was something to do with Kyungsoo, considering she wasn't evacuated with the rest of us."

Hyolyn nodded. "Date and time."

Soyou glanced down at the bottom of the screen. "09, 06, 0014, 06:49."

Hyolyn picked up the headphones laying on the desk and put them over her head as the queue started up. Visual of the holding cells, from the position over the door, showed Kyungsoo standing in the centre of the room, the male subjects unconscious while the female ones, across the small hall, were yelling in a mix of Korean and Chinese. Taemin and the Director were standing across from her, by a desk, when the Director made a flippant comment, leaving the room with Taemin at his heels as armed thugs opened fire. Kyungsoo took all the shots without even trying to escape. She fell, riddled with bulletholes, at the same moment that glass exploded out from the very last cell and a tall man with glowing blue eyes shot out, running forwards at lightning speed before putting his hand through one of the armed men's chests and snapping the neck of another with his free hand. Shortly after him, all the other male specimens broke free, but ignored the men and Kyungsoo's prone body, only moving towards the cells containing the female captives. The tall man gave chase to the armed men who had fled. One of the female subjects, a tall blonde, did her best to struggle away from the blonde man who broke her free, kneeling by Kyungsoo and running around, doing her best to improvise her way through hooking up an IV to the researcher's arm. It wasn't much longer that the tallest man returned and the blonde man pulled her away, taking her from the room. Most of the others followed - sometimes the men were dragging the women out, others the woman was running from the man. The only exception to that was a man who had broken the console in the wall to open the door over simply shattering it. He let himself into the room and wrapped himself around an apparently unconscious woman laying on a thin cot at the far end of the cell. He held her close, got comfortable, closed his eyes and went entirely still. 

"Well, so there then." Hyolyn muttered to herself. "That's . . . yeah."

"What?" Soyou asked, peeking away from her screen for a moment. 

"I just . . .I understand what Amber meant."

"There." Bora called out. "Got the alarms to shut off. It's a force shut down, though, and will likely affect the seals on the rest of the wings. I don't know what it will do, but Taemin's ass is covered for a little bit longer."

"Good."

"Guys?"

Hyolyn grunted at Dasom to continue. 

"I . . . found VIXX."

They all stopped, sickness welling up in their hearts. 

"Print it out. We'll look at it on our own time." Hyolyn ordered, forced professionalism the only thing saving her from wondering what terrible fate their previous charges had been subjected to. "And don't read it. I need you level headed right now, Dasom."

"I understand." The youngest replied weakly, clearing her screen and shutting down the console as the printer whirled to life. "What do you need me to do?"

"Past that door over there is their paper files. I need everything they saved about EXO and what this experiment was for."

"How do you know all of this?" Bora questioned. 

"Would you believe it," She stopped and gave a little, barely hysterical laugh. "Kyungsoo told me."

It seemed that Bora decided she didn't want to know and turned back to the task at hand. "So, I got the alarms to shut off. What's next?"

"Your job is to do your best to cover for Taemin. We need to do everything we can to seal up the facility again and keep as much as possible inside. Taemin obviously doesn't know what he's looking at here, so we can pretend we need more time if there's something else worth doing, something worth saving."

They all looked amongst each other, Hyolyn's expression hard. 

"It shouldn't take me too long to find EXO's stuff. I'll see if there's any other files that are relevant." Dasom gave a resolute nod and disappeared into the back storage room. 

"Soyou, your job is to read the transcripts of the escapes and assist Bora in problem areas. We need to do all we can to help Taemin. And if some of that covers up the fact that Kyungsoo and the rest of EXO is alive, well, that's above our pay grade."

The two women nodded resolutely, their lips twitching up in grins. 

"I'll be looking through what's left of the video footage. Tap me if you need me."

"Aye aye, leader."


	11. Taking Aim

Taemin reviewed the information Bora had drummed up and Hyolyn had given him. 

"She was able to halt the alarms, but the facilty's gone to hell." Hyolyn reported, hips cocked and a hand on her waist in the sassiest manner he'd ever seen. "Most of the floors have been compromised and EXO is definitely gone."

"So you did check."

"Of course. You're only mysterious until I think about you."

He looked up at her. "I imagined you looked . . . Did you see Researcher Do?"

There was something inately calculating in the way Hyolyn looked at him. Her eyes weren't narrowed, and her face was mostly neutral, but there was a quirk to her lips. "No."

"No? Did you check the floors of the containment cells of places where EXO could have possibly nested with the females?"

"Do you think I'm blind or something?"

"You wanted me gone, so I expect-"

"I saw the corpses of your soldiers, all fifty-seven of their shell casings, the model numbers on their AR-15s but Kyungsoo's body was  _not_  there. None of them were."

He scowled. "What exactly are you implying, Miss Kim? If you have something so say, don't dance around it."

She sat herself down on the desk and lent over it, the air around her going cold and her face hardening into something dangerous. Perhaps he had pushed the wrong person.

"Implying? I didn't realize my details were so vague." She clicked her tongue and grabbed his jaw, her grip tight and unforgiving. "Kyungsoo is gone, likely along with EXO. As someone who knows her incredibly well, you should ask yourself if she's the type to opt for forgiveness. That's the only way you'll know whether or not you have to ready your neck for the noose."

* * *

"There have been reports of disfigured and mechanical men around Seoul, the districts closest to the Module." Bora said nonchalantly, flipping through the tv channels. "News is really blowing up about it."

"Oh yeah?" Soyou replied, feigning disinterest as she scanned through more of the Seoul Module's hardware and systems. 

"Yeah. Six of them, they think, in total."

"Guess we'll have to be careful wallking through the district, then." Dasom murmured, flipping though page after page of horribly handwritten notes on EXO. "Though we do have those errands that will bring us there."

"Yeah. Definitely gotta keep an eye out. Keep safe, you know?"

"Absolutely."

"Does anyone want to run out with me?" Bora dropped the remote on the couch, standing to stretch.

Soyou and Dasom looked at each other over the table, both cocking an eyebrow at each other. 

"I don't see the harm in getting out for a bit." Dasom said. 

"True. It would be good to clear our heads. Help us focus."

"Wanna see if Hyolyn's up for a little errand running? Might be useful for her to get out of the stuffy office once in a while too, especially with all this stuff going on."

"Good idea. I'll go see if she's free."

* * *

Taemin read the email from Hyolyn on his tablet and resisted the urge to sigh. Split on the screen was the reminder notification about the mandatory company dinner gala. 

_S_ _cientist Lee, we've been able to remotely reactivate power to specific portions of the Module. We've activated security protocols on the entrance, ventilation systems and inter-ward passageways. Luckily, whatever opened the door to the Module didn't damage the actual door itself, so we've managed to re-close it. I can't promise how long it will remain closed, because the locking mechanism needs in-person repair, but there are sensory alerts active on the door again. I've sent the codes to log into the monitors remotely in the attached PDF and the link will connect you to one of the in-house consoles. Without actually going there, I'm not sure what else we can do. We're going to continue to observe and keep searching through the facility to see what else has been compromised, but I have no idea on what we'll find. We're at your disposal if you think of anything._

_\- Secretary Kim Hyojung_

He straightened his tie in the mirror, abruptly reminded of when Kyungsoo used to do this for him back in the Module. She had been adamant he present well when summoned to these things. He winced and looked away from himself, turning to look for his suit jacket. The room around him was pale and bland, worse than any of the hotel rooms he was usually shipped to. It was worse than his space back in the facility - it reminded him of her space. It looked like her room used to. Everything was beige, barely touched, neat and clean, like no one had ever been here. There was no personality to the room; the anonymity of it scared him. It felt like any second, she would walk out of the bathroom, give him one of her calm stares and ask him why he wasn't on his way already. His phone had buzzed with the message from his cab driver, so there was really no reason to remain in this drab, empty collection of walls. 

Green lights caught his attention, but when he turned to look out the window for them, there was nothing. Twenty stories below, a brunette man walked through the parking lot, away from the building. Most of the cars were gone for the evening, all fo the other Directors and such having already left. The brunette man met a small woman with her hood up at the sidewalk. They hugged, linked arms and walked off. A shiver worked its way up the back of his neck, but there was nothing there. Even if Kyungsoo was alive, out there somewhere, she was certainly haunting him. He did sigh this time, pulling on the jacket before getting his coat and phone. His cab was waiting and it wouldn't do to be late to this particular dinner. It might cost him more than just his job. 

Just like her. 


	12. The Curtain

The venue was huge. Two rented ballrooms, the flimsy dividing wall tucked away within its closet. Tables were set up, each with a department and calling card. Each person had a title, a position, a  _place_. It was decorated lavishly in gold and crystal, all of the tableware china and silver with alcohol flowing freely into Swarovski stemware. Beautiful swaths of silk and satin curtained from the ceiling, gossamer adding just that most elegant hint of sparkle favoured by the kind of people with this much bloodmoney. The catering staff were all black-tie appropriate and ever-smiling in the crisp, forced way of customer service. Once the food was served and the business began, they would be told to promptly leave - the business was of a delicate nature and even the knowledge of the codewording they would use might cause an international incident. Armed men were on the roof and around the hall, though they were well-concealed. They set up catwalks along the vaulted ceilings, painted gold underneath as to not alert the guests of their prescence. The guards would be striding along that as well, high-powered rifles with military-grade ammunition and scopes at the ready, glinting much more ominously than the chandeliers. 

Kyungsoo watched them from across the street, with their unmarked black vans and SUVs. She had attended only one of these galas, but she was an observer by profession and she remembered and catalogued all of the smallest details. She didn't imagine it would be much different than she recalled; Kim Youngmin was a one-track kind of man, and liked things done the one way he preferred it. She idly wondered what he would think of her plans for the evening, how much they would differ from what he desired. Not that it would change her mind, but she did wonder. It was the nature of a researcher to try and learn as much as possible about how something worked. She was going to have a very pleasant time dissecting him tonight, that was certain. 

* * *

Taemin looked over at Amber, who was sitting next to him, nervous and unsure. She looked good in her gown, but it was obvious she was uncomfortable. She wasn't the type for this kind of place. She was the beta shift manager, hadn't even controlled the research in the slightest until after the Module's collapse. Her place was properly Kyungsoo's, the short, severe woman who's stone cold expression had intimidated everyone else present. She had been undaunted by all of the names, the titles, the self-importance. And all of the results he had to present tonight were  _hers_. 

They sat quietly together through much of the actual dinner aspect of the gala, Amber's small talk with another Research Lead being very strained and stunted. She kept looking around, nervously fiddling with her hands and her clutch. He didn't question it. She likely had an issue with crowds and attention after being holed up in the facility for so long. He himself didn't do so well in these events, choosing mostly to mingle with people from his own department and discreetly discuss projects. 

The staff efficiently cleared away their plates, made sure all of their glasses were topped up, then vanished. Visibly armed men entered the room, then, standing guard around the perimeter. That made him feel better - something familiar at least. The lights went down around the tables and the lights on the stage went up. With a round of applause, Director Kim Youngmin walked up on stage. Amber suddenly got the urge to go to the bathroom and quietly scuttled away. 

"Welcome to the annual gathering of the Board of Directors for the crown jewel of KineTech; SM, the Seoul Module. Let us get down to business."

* * *

It was kind of mesmerizing, she could admit that to herself. He hadn't been a fighter before this, he'd been a dancer. She could see it in the way he spun around, snapping the man's neck before he was even spotted, jumping across seven feet of open air to land with the quiet grace of a cat and breaking another man's windpipe. He was effortless, but then he'd always been like that before. Beautiful as ever. Now he was just deadly too. Her beautiful Kai. 

"Ready?" Junmyeon whispered into her ear through the headset. Sehun had forgotten she was there, waiting on confirmation. 

"Yeah. We've got the roof." She picked up one of the unweildy silenced rifles, steadied herself a little bit and took aim at one of the guards who had noticed Kai. She only managed to shoot him in the shoulder, but it was enough to mess up his shot and give Kai the time to smash his face off the concrete ballastrade. 

"Okay, good. Baekhyun?"

"Foyer and entryway secure." She replied, a little breathless. She grunted, with a little  _pop_  noise. Likely someone's head getting crushed between her thighs. "Yup, got this."

"Jongdae?" 

"Amber removed and secure."

"Minseok?"

"Backstage is ready to go. Yungmin's not noticed his security personnel have vanished just yet, but the window is closing. 

"Sounds good. Jongdae, take up position near the fire exit door with Lay. Baekhyun, you and Chanyeol are going to hold the main door. Minseok, Luhan, hide yourselves but keep an eye out. Take down anyone you haev to to keep yourselves covered, but if you're discovered, go to the catwalks. Tao and I have a spot for you there. Copy?"

"Copy." Kyungsoo answered. "Lines dead unless absolutely necessary."

"Understood." Sehun replied at the same time the other four women did. 

Kai finished kill the last man, immediately returning his attention to her. His smirk was a little devious, a little frightening, but damn gorgeous. The grey-white of his eyes shone like LEDs in the dark of the rooftop, starlike. 

"C'mere, baby." She murmured, opening her arms. Like wind, he was abruptly there, nuzzling into her neck and humming. "You know you're beautiful, don't you?"

He nodded. "Like you."

* * *

Jongdae was leaning against the fire exit, a perfect view of what was to come. Lay stood behind her, close but not touching. He had on sunglasses, but even then, it didn't completely cover the luminesecent green of his eyes. Some of the people close to them kept sending them strange looks, but she pretended they were supposed to be there adn the guests didn't make a fuss. Lay was quiet and calm as normal, idly watching the proceeding with little care.

No one noticed the little body of Kyungsoo move in the darkness of the stage as a brief intro video for Project: Exhume's progress report played. They didn't even notice her when Taemin walked onto the stage and began a well-rehearsed speech. They noticed her when her low, monotone voice broke over the silent theatre. 

"That's not how I remember it."

* * *

The surprise was spectacular. Taemin's eyes blew wide and he paled instantly, like he'd seen a ghost. In many ways, she supposed, he had. 

She walked out calmly. Her clothes were new (stolen) and she was clean. The ultimate scare was how benignly mundane she appeared, like she'd just walked out fo her house to go grocery shopping. Everyone on the stage and in the audience knew that she wasn't that kind of woman, but that only added to the creeping sensation fo dread. 

"K-Kyungsoo?" He stuttered in shock. 

"Hello, Taemin." She responded, dreadfully unreadable. "I'm glad you came."

He fumbled all over himself. "Wh-Why would I not?"

"SHINee left, so I wasn't sure you would still be welcome here. I am very happy to see you again. We parted so bitterly last time. It was unfortunate that circumstances were what they were."

He blinked at her, hope coming to his face for a second. "Um, I'm glad you think that way."

"It's not going to go down the same way this time, I'm afraid." She continued, pulling the magnum pistol from her jeans. "This time, I am the one with the gun."

He immediately raised his hands in surrender, the guests going silent and still. only the Directors themselves stood, Youngmin in particular the first to be vocal. 

"Why can't you just die when you're supposed to?" He yelled angrily. 

Kyungsoo swivelled her head to stare him down, face incredibly neutral. "I'm not very good at following instructions. Unfortunate as it is, I'm taking your shooting me as a notification of my severance. I've simply come to settle outstanding debts." And she shot Taemin in the head. 

The abruptness of the action elicited shocked and horrified gasps from the audience before, from the blackness behind her on the stage, two blue glowing eyes appeared. Kris slunk into the light, tall and daunting and fierce. That made Youngmin re-evaluate his position. 

"You brought the experiment here." He muttered, aghast.

She looked up at Kris like a museum exhibit she had failed to notice. "Oh, him? Yes, I suppose so. I thought you were referring to the other one."

"The other one?"

"On the memorandem, does it not say the next order of business after EXO is VIXX?"

Youngmin had no room to speak past the robotic fist through his chest. Ravi pulled it out with a gratuitous snarl, parts of his robotic replacement skeleton peering out past the synthetic skin. The other five cyborgs glinted dimly inside the ballroom, standing seven feet tall apiece with unnaturally beautiful faces and dangerous eyes. 

"Gentlemen, I will leave the decision up to you. Would you rather execute the people in this room, or shall we?" She asked, tone conversational. 

"We'll do it." N replied, eyes narrowed, ready for vengeance. 

She nodded, turning away with a small wave. "Have fun."

* * *

Jongdae shook herself when they were a few blocks away and all had met up again. "That was the most hardcore thing I think I've ever seen you do."

"You weren't there to see her goad people into shooting her." Baekhyun muttered. Chanyeol rumbled a laugh. 

"Yeah, that was pretty scary." Sehun agreed, petting Kai's hair from where his head was resting on her shoulder. 

"Are you scared of me now?" Kyungsoo queried. 

"I mean, a little bit." Jongdae replied. 

"Good. I'm a frightening person." She turned and continued walking down the street to the restaurant that they had planned to go to after the gala. 

"Fuck yeah you are."

Kris smirked, long legs catching up with her in a stride or two. Lay kissed Jongdae's cheek, chastely taking her hand and tugging her along. 

"I'm hungry." Tao moaned. 

"Yes, yes." Junmyeon soothed. "We're going now, I promise."

Sehun and Kai started up conversation with Minseok and Luhan about what they were going to order. Only Baekhyun and Chanyeol stalled, looking back at the deceptively calm facade of the hotel where the massacre was taking place. 

Baekhyun looked up and met the amber eyes of Chanyeol. He looked back down at her, as though he could sense her thinking. She cupped his cheeks. "I hope they make her suffer like she did when she told her father to take me."

"I didn't want her." Chanyeol rumbled, nuzzling into her palm. "I was always yours."

"You guys coming or what?" Luhan called back. 

Baekhyun closed her eyes and pulled herself together, smiling when she turned back to the group. "Yup. C'mon, Yeollie."

He slung an arm over her shoulders and all twelve of them vanished into the night.


End file.
